17 September,2017 08:13 AM IST | Chennai | Gaurav Joshi
Australia have the luxury of picking from an abundance of all-rounders. With Aaron Finch ruled out of the first couple of ODIs and with Peter Handscomb only arriving in Chennai on Saturday
Steve Smith
Australia have the luxury of picking from an abundance of all-rounders. With Aaron Finch ruled out of the first couple of ODIs and with Peter Handscomb only arriving in Chennai on Saturday, Australia will only have David Warner and Steve Smith, who rarely bowls these days, as the only frontline batsmen in the team.
The rest of the Australia batting will compromise all-rounders such as Hilton Cartwright, Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis while James Faulkner and Ashton Agar can also be extremely handy with the willow. Australia could have as many as eight or nine bowling options and with a flat pitch expected for today's first game, Smith will have plenty of options to halt the star-studded Indian batting.
Speaking ahead of the match, Smith said: "We have got a spinning all-rounder, we've got all-rounders that take the pace off the ball and things like that. We have got a few different options, but we will go in with what we think is the best for the conditions."
While playing plenty of all-rounders in the team can work, it also means there is that extra responsibility on the frontline batsmen to score big centuries, especially given scores in excess of 300 might be the norm in the five-match series.
