Toss India chose to bowl vs Australia
India’s Umesh Yadav, who broke a three-year drought between T20Is on Tuesday, has also been pushed to the bench.
Overnight rain in Nagpur had left the outfield water-logged and although the weather had been completely clear on the day of the match, play had to be postponed by two and a half hours while the groundstaff tried to get things ready.
The major concern for umpires Nitin Menon and KN Ananthapadmanabhan was an area at wide mid-on, which gave way underfoot and created the potential for injury. Even when the officials finally made the decision to let the play go ahead at 8.50pm IST, they did so saying “although the conditions are not perfect, they are safe to play.”
According to the game’s revised stipulations, no bowler can bowl more than two overs, which will also be the length of the powerplay in each innings.
Australia: 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 Cameron Green, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Tim David, 6 Matthew Wade (wk), 7 Pat Cummins, 8 Daniel Sams, 9 Sean Abbott, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood
India: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Dinesh Karthik, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal