Melbourne, Feb 5: A warm welcome to the opening game of the CB series between Australia and India at the MCG. There is rain forecast for later in the evening but as of now the conditions look fine for some cricket. India registered their first win of the tour a couple of days back and look a vastly different side in the shorter formats.
India have won the toss and elected to field
This is Sachin Tendulkar's first ODI since the final of the World Cup.
Virender Sehwag missing this match due to injury. Rohit Sharma is in.
Clarke: I was going to bat. The pitch looks dry and there might be some turn. I watched the T20 games and there are some good players in the team. I hope the team carries the good form in this series. We need to play some good cricket. Matthew Wade and Dan Christian are playing today.
Dhoni: We will bowl first as the wicket looks good. The sides have chased down well at this ground. We need to restrict Australia to a low score. Sehwag has been rested. It is important to do well and we need to do the basics correctly.
Brett Lee, who was in top form during the Big Bash final bowling constantly in excess of 145 kmph has been ruled out of the CB series with a broken foot. He is doubtful for the West Indies ODI series as well. That's bad news for Australia.
Pitch report: Ian Chappell has the honors today of doing the pitch report and he reckons that it is a typical Australian wicket - pretty hard and with a fair amount of grass. It may slow down later on in the evening and there are chances of rain as well as the day goes on.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Rahul Sharma
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Matthew Wade(w), Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke(c), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Daniel Christian, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Starc, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty