India vs Australia 1st T20I: McGrath, Schutt Dropped as India Bowl First
India opt to bowl as Australia omit McGrath and Schutt in first T20I in Sydney.
The match marked the start of the captaincy tenure of Sophie Molineux in the format. Australia left out joint vice captain Tahlia McGrath and experienced seamer Megan Schutt.
Allrounder Nicola Carey returned to the side, having last played in 2022. Darcie Brown and Kim Garth were named as the specialist quicks. Molineux was listed to bat at number nine.
India fielded a largely expected side. Shreyanka Patil played her first match since 2024. The visitors opted to bowl on a grey and drizzly evening, with delays possible.
Molineux will lead Australia in the T20I series before a brief break, after which Alyssa Healy will continue to captain in the ODI series and one off Test. Molineux will then take charge across formats from the West Indies tour in mid March.
"We are really working hard to achieve all our targets," Harmanpreet Kaur said. "Winning the [ODI] World Cup was one of them, so we are on the right track. We're just working really hard, and hopefully we'll keep bringing our best whenever we play."
Teams:
Australia
1 Beth Mooney, 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Ashleigh Gardner, 6 Georgia Wareham, 7 Annabel Sutherland, 8 Nicola Carey, 9 Sophie Molineux, 10 Kim Garth, 11 Darcie Brown.
India
1 Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur, 5 Richa Ghosh, 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Arundhati Reddy, 8 Shreyanka Patil, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 Sree Charani, 11 Renuka Singh Thakur.