India vs Australia: Hardik Pandya smacks 83 runs propelling India to set 282 runs for Kangaroos

Team India all rounder batsman Hardik Pandya once again proved that he is an explosive batsman of 'Men in Blue' after smashing 83 runs in 66 balls in the opening ODI of the five-match series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on 17th September.

Hardik Pandya topscored for India with a 66-ball 83, while Mahendra Singh Dhoni made 79 off 88 balls.

Pandya scored 5 sixes and 5 fours in his innings.

In a single over, Pandya hit one four and three sixes consecutively and scored a total of 24 runs.

However, in the 40.5 over he was caught by Faulkner in Jampa's delivery.

After winning toss and electing elected to bat first, India set 282 runs for team Australia in the.

Riding on spectacular the performance of India's all-rounder player Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni, team managed to build a good target for team Australia.

Opting to bat, India made a competitive 281 for seven against Australia in the first One- day International of the five-match series here today.

Nathan Coulter-Nile picked up three wickets giving away 44 runs for Australia.

As far as Playing XI is concerned, KL Rahul has been left out to give Manish Pandey a go at number four spot while Ajinkya Rahane will open the batting for India in Shikhar Dhawan's absence.

For Australia, Hilton Cartwright will make his ODI?debut while Kane Richardson, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb and Aaron Finch have all been left out from the XI.

The visitors are also without their two top pacers -- Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Going into the match, India will aim for another comprehensive show against a depleted Australia side after decimating Sri Lanka at their home turf.

India's home advantage will relatively reduce in the limited-overs versions, which promises another stiff contest between the sides.

The Virat Kohli-led side, however, will still start as the favourite. It will go into a stretch of limited-overs cricket at home having swept Sri Lanka across formats recently, and the team is gradually becoming a ruthless unit with players for every condition and situation.

That's evident from India's tremendous success in ODIs over the last two years; the last time India lost a bilateral ODI series was in early 2016 when it was beaten 4-1 by Australia Down Under.

Australia, on the other hand, have returned to India for the first time since their fiery and controversial Border-Gavaskar series earlier this year, which India won 2-1 and which ended with Kohli declaring some of his friendships with the Australian players had been irreparably damaged.

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli(c), Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(w), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.

Australia Playing XI: David Warner, Hilton Cartwright, Steven Smith(c), Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(w), James Faulkner, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa.

Brief Scores:

India: 281 for seven in 50 overs (Hardik Pandya 83, Mahendra Singh Dhoni 79; Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/44).

-With Agencies inputs.