World Cup Sunday Special: India To Start Title Dreams Against Australia In Chennai Today

Chennai: Hosts Team India will begin their campaign in the ICC ODI Cricket World Cup 2023 against five-time world champions Australia at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai at 2 pm on Sunday.

The toss is scheduled at 1.30 pm.

This will be the 150th ODI meeting between India and Australia. Rohit Sharma’s men would be eying to start their campaign with a win, having beaten Australia at home in the first two matches of the three-match ODI series 10 days ago.

The India vs Australia match is expected to take the tournament to a feverish pitch. Australia have won the trophy five times (987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015) while India became world champions twice (1983 and 2011).  In ICC World Cups as well, Australia have a better record having won eight out of 12 matches played so far.

India will go into this match possibly without in-form batter Shubman Gill, who is suffering from dengue. Rahul Dravid in a pre-match press conference said that they will take a call on Gill’s inclusion in India’s Playing 11 at the right time. Since spin is expected to be hugely influential at Chepauk, India might be open to unleashing Ravichandran Ashwin alongside Kuldeep Yadav as the second spinner. “Yeah, I mean that’s the luxury we have where we can afford to play three spinners because I don’t really consider Hardik Pandya as just a seamer. He (Hardik) is a proper fast bowler, who can crank up good speed. So, that gives us an advantage. That gives us that luxury of playing three spinners and three seamers as well. So, there’s a possibility of that,” Rohit said in the pre-match press conference.

While Gill’s availability remains a topic of discussion, a lot of focus will also be on the weather in Chennai as India’s scheduled warm-up games against England and Netherlands were washed out due to rain. While Chennai is unlikely to witness rain on Sunday, according to Accuweather, but humidity percentage could rise up to 82.

The last eight ODI first innings scores at Chepauk have ranged from 227 to 299, with the side batting first winning six times.

Indian viewers can watch the live coverage of the fixture on the Star Sports Network. The match will also be available for livestreaming for free on Disney+ Hotstar website and app on mobile devices.