World no. 1 T20I hit Suryakumar Yadav made his Test debut for India against Australia in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test. He also made his debut with wicketkeeper KS Bharat. Yadav's inclusion means that in-form batsman Shubman Gill is not in the XI, while Ishan Kishan is not in either. Australian captain Pat Cummins won the wicket and opted to beat India in the first Test.

"We would have batted too. Looks pretty dry. There will be help for spinners. We got to wait and see how much it does. Yesterday when we started training we did see some seam movement for the pacers up front. We have had a good prep for the last 5-6 days," India captain Rohit Sharma said at the toss.

"We trained on the aspects in store. This is a big one. We know the importance of the series but we also understand it's about winning one session at a time. It's a long series. Three spinners, two seamers, Bharat and Suryakumar Yadav are debuting."

There were also changes to the Australian squad, with the arrivals of Todd Murphy and Peter Handscomb. "We will fight. It looks like a fitting wicket in the middle. 2017 was a long one. I can't wait for it to start. . We have had good preparation. We feel we are really well placed. Two changes Todd Murphy in. Handscomb in for Travis Head," Pat Cummins said at the toss.

Australia (Na-egwu XI): David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (w), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland

India (Egwuregwu XI): Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj