Why Rohit Sharma will not play the 1st ODI against Australia

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma will not feature in the first ODI of the three-match home series against Australia. The series opener will be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday, March 17.

According to reports in several media outlets, Rohit requested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not to consider him for the first ODI, citing family reasons. The senior batter will be busy attending his brother-in-law's marriage during that time.

However, Rohit will be joining the squad ahead of the second ODI in Vizag on Sunday, March 19. He will be available for selection in the final two games of the series.

The Mumbai-born cricketer was last seen in action during the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He successfully led the Indian team to the trophy by winning the four-match Test series by a 2-1 margin.

Rohit was happy with his team's performance despite India missing some important players.

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"Really happy to win this series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy," he said at the end of the game. "It was hard-fought series with lots of ebbs and flows, but we were able to come up trumps even with a couple of key players missing from our squad. So, really pleased with the performance."

Rohit made a superb start to the series, scoring a hundred at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.

Since then, he hasn't fired all cylinders but has had a good start on a few occasions. The right-handed batter ended the series with 242 runs from four games at an average of 40.33.

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Hardik Pandya to lead India in the 1st ODI in the absence of Rohit Sharma

With Rohit Sharma unavailable for the first ODI against Australia in Mumbai, ace all-rounder Hardik Pandya will lead the side.

Hardik was recently elevated as the vice-captain of the Indian team in the limited-overs format. Thus, he will step in as the stand-in skipper.

With the 2023 ODI World Cup on home soil on the horizon, the Indian think tank will look to get their combinations in place against a top-flight opposition like Australia.

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India’s ODI squad against Australia: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, and Jaydev Unadkat.

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