1st ODI: Both India and Australia will experiment to prepare for the World Cup

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Mumbai . Being the year of the 50-over World Cup, India will ramp up their preparations for the mega event with a three-match ODI series against Australia, the first of which will be played at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday.

The second and third matches of the series will be played in Visakhapatnam on March 19 and Chennai on March 22 respectively.

It’s going to be a very busy year for India in terms of 50 over cricket. The Man in Blue has already played six ODIs in the first month of the year and the second phase of his preparations for the World Cup will begin with the ODI series against Australia, followed by a three-match series in the West Indies, Pakistan or the Asia Cup in the UAE. Will happen. There will be three ODIs against Australia in September 2023. The World Cup will be played in October-November.

With the Indian Premier League (IPL) scheduled to be played in April and May, India’s white-ball specialists will not even get a chance to take a breather.

In January, India clean sweeped Sri Lanka 3-0, followed by a 3-0 clean sweep of New Zealand. India won by 12 runs in Hyderabad, by eight wickets in Raipur and by 90 runs in Indore.

The Indian team will be hoping for another clean sweep against Australia but it will not be easier than the previous two clean sweeps. India had earlier won the Gavaskar-Border Trophy 2-1 from Australia. After losing the first two Tests, Australia won the third Test in Indore.

In the middle of the Test series, Australia’s regular captain and leading fast bowler Pat Cummins had gone home due to the death of his mother. In place of Cummins, Steve Smith captained Australia in the third and fourth tests. Australia’s morale has been boosted by the arrival of white-ball specialists Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Sean Abbott, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Ashton Agar. Australia will present a tougher challenge in the ODI series than in the Test series.

Given the nature of ODI cricket, there won’t be much of a spin threat, which will heave a sigh of relief for Australia’s ODI experts.

India will go into the first ODI without their regular skipper Rohit Sharma who will not play in the first ODI due to family commitments. In his absence, vice-captain Hardik Pandya will take over the captaincy.

The hosts have already suffered a major setback with middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer being ruled out of the series due to a back injury. In the absence of fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj will handle the pace bowling. Along with them, young pacers Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat and skipper Hardik will give the selectors another chance to assess the pace department.

In the batting department, Lokesh Rahul will get another chance to cement his place in the World Cup squad.

He had lost his place in the Test team. Shubman Gill, on the other hand, was in excellent form in the last ODI series against New Zealand. Gill scored a double century in the first match and a century in the third match. He also scored a century in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad. In this Test, star batsman Virat Kohli regained his form by scoring a brilliant 186 runs.

With the presence of ODI specialist Suryakumar Yadav, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur, India will hope to put up a better show against Australia.

This ODI series will give both the teams an opportunity to try out their different combinations to strengthen their preparations for the World Cup.(IANS)

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