India vs Australia | Marcus Harris to make debut; Mitchell Marsh dropped from XI CV

Australia have put together their 11-man squad for the series opener against India which will be played at the Adelaide Oval on December 6. Justin Langer & Co. have opted to hand Marcus Harris his first Test cap for the national team as he was included in the squad for Thursday’s game.

Harris, who scored 501 runs at 71.50 from 5 matches in the Sheffield Shield, is expected to open the batting along with T20I skipper, Aaron Finch. The duo will be followed by Usman Khawaja at number three. Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head and captain Tim Paine will form the middle-order.

Shaun’s younger brother, Mitchell Marsh, has been dropped in favor Handscomb to strengthen the Aussie batting order. Mitchell Marsh had a succession of poor outings with the bat in South Africa and could only manage 30 runs from four innings in UAE against Pakistan recently.

However, the decision to opt for a stronger batting line-up meant that the hosts’ will miss out on Mitch’s bowling abilities. Tim Paine will only have four frontline bowlers - Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon to choose from. Although Head can bowl part-time spin, it will be interesting to see how the Aussies test the Indian batsmen in the upcoming series.

Playing XI: Marcus Harris, Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c&wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon

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