Big Picture
The home team wins the first ODI of a three-match series, at Sydney. Both India and Australia have been here before, the last time they played a bilateral series in Australia in fact. On that occasion, India came from behind to win it 2-1, but that was in January 2019. Back when Covid was just five letters that wouldn’t have been terribly useful at Scrabble.
In November 2020, Australia are not only fortified by the returns of Steven Smith and David Warner, they also have all three first-choice pace picks playing. None of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood or Mitchell Starc played in the 2019 matches. Moreover, India had Rohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar fit and in the XI. India now have a lopsided look where players with great individual skills make up the XI, but the batsmen can’t bowl and the…