India cricket team have gone ahead with three pacers and three all-rounders in their playing XI for the 1st IND vs AUS ODI in Perth. Australia cricket team won the toss and decided to bowl first in the contest that is set to take place amid overcast conditions. Nitish Kumar Reddy has been handed his debut ODI cap by former Indian captain Rohit Sharma.
India playing XI for 1st ODI
Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana
On bench: Kuldeep Yadav, Dhruv Jurel, Prasidh Krishna, Yashasvi Jaiswal
India have decided to go with an extra-batter and have hence left out Kuldeep Yadav from the line-up. The Men in Blue boast of a strong middle-order line-up featuring the likes of Iyer, Rahul, Axar, Sundar and Reddy.
Meanwhile, Rohit and Virat make their comeback to international cricket for the first time since the Champions Trophy 2025 final way back in March. Sharma will continue to open the innings with new ODI captain Gill while Virat will come in to bat at number 3.
Prasidh, who seen practicing with the white-ball consistently during the IND vs WI Test series, has been left out and instead Rana has been picked in the XI. Rana’s selection was severely criticised by several former cricketers which prompted head coach Gautam Gambhir to step in and ask them to stop trolling the 23-year-old for boosting views on their YouTube channels.
India’s pace department will be spearheaded by Siraj and will be partnered by Arshdeep, Rana and Nitish. India will look to use Arshdeep to the maximum under the overcast conditions in Perth, given that he can get the ball to swing both ways.
