Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat on Sunday in their mouth-watering World Cup opener against hosts India at Chennai’s M A Chidambaram Stadium.
With Travis Head recovering from a hand fracture, Mitchell Marsh retained his place as David Warner’s opening partner for the five-time champions who also left out all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who is nursing a hamstring injury.
“We’re in a really good spot, we’ve got a good balance between game time and being fresh,” Cummins said.
India had their own issues at the top of the order with opener Shubman Gill down with dengue.
Left-handed Ishan Kishan was drafted in to open the innings with skipper Rohit Sharma.
“We’ve covered all our bases,” Rohit said at the toss.
“Unfortunately, Shubman didn’t recover in time. Ishan will replace him.”
Two-time champions India picked both Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin in a three-pronged spin attack that also includes all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Australia: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
