Australia vs India 2018: A mismatch hampered by rain to begin the tour

Australia has scrambled a very young team for the first tour match against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. No toss was possible as rain washed out the first day of the four-day warm-up match as the Indian cricket team prepare for the upcoming Test down-under starting from December 6.

BCCI has announced that it will not be a first-class fixture and every member of the squad will be allowed to bat or bowl and only eleven fielders will be allowed to take the field at a given point of time.

D'Arcy Short will be the only international player participating in the practice match including the new entourage of concluded U-19 Cricket World Cup like opening batsmen Max Bryant, all-rounder Jonathan Merlo and Param Uppal.

All the eyes will be on R Ashwin as he has continuously failed to perform consistently outside Asia as he has done in the subcontinent, where he has won several matches for his country. So, whether he will be able to take wickets or not will decide his fate and whether he is part of the starting XI towards the end of the series.

Also, India will be looking to finalise the opening combination. Prithvi Shaw recently performed really well for India A and the recently concluded Test series against West Indies. He is unlikely to be dropped for the first Test match against Australia which will put a lot of pressure on either Murali Vijay or KL Rahul to seal their position by performing exceedingly well in the tour match.

Here are both teams:

CA XI: Sam Whiteman (C), Max Bryant, Jake Carder, Jackson Coleman, Harry Conway, Daniel Fallins, David Grant, Aaron Hardie, Jonathan Merlo, Harry Nielsen (WK), D'Arcy Short, Param Uppal.

India: Lokesh Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Hanuma Vihari, Parthiv Patel, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah