Australia and India do battle in the first of five ODIs on Tuesday with the opening match of the series coming from Perth.
Both sides will be looking to get up to speed as quickly as possible and draw first blood in the series so we should get an extremely competitive match to open things up with.
Australia will be playing their first limited overs match since their tour of England in this game so how quickly they can get going will be interesting to see especially as they have a much changed side from the one which featured in England in their last ODI.
Dave Warner missed out in that game but he is back for this one while Australia will give ODI debuts to Scott Boland and Joel Paris in this match. They come in for the injured Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins. James Faulkner also returns having been banned for that series for a drink driving offence. Josh Hazlewood is in for John Hastings.
India might have a bit of a lack of confidence going into this series having lost two of the three they have played since the World Cup. That run has accounted for some big players and like Australia they will be much changed here.
With the exception of Suresh Raina, India’s top order remains intact from the side which made the semi-final of the World Cup but their bowling attack will be much changed with Mohammad Shami and Mohit Sharma both out injured. Gurkeerat Singh and Barinder Sran are set for their ODI debuts.
The WACA Ground in Perth stages this opening match of the series. There have been 78 previous matches on this ground with Australia having a 27-17 record here and India 6-6 so you would think Australia have a slight advantage. Australia have won two of the three meetings between the two here.
I’m not surprised by that. The extra pace and bounce in the WACA track often catches tourists out especially those from the sub-continent who are used to batting on my lower wickets and that is the thing the Indians have to combat here.
On paper India don’t look as strong to me. They lack a bit of batting depth and this bowling attack they bring here doesn’t look anything like as dangerous or threatening as ones they have toured with in the past.
You could argue Australia’s attack at this level looks weak but I really like Scott Boland as a bowler and Paris will be debuting on his home ground so I expect them to go well both in this match and in Boland’s case at least, over the series as a whole.
Ultimately the batting depth could be the difference between the two sides to me here. James Faulkner could end up batting at number eight and that highlights the strength they have so I’ll take Australia to draw first blood which a fairly emphatic win.
Back Australia (-4.5wickets/20.5runs) to win 1st ODI for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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