India elect to bat in first ODI

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat first in the tri-series opener against Australia in Brisbane on Sunday.

India handed Bengal middle order batsman Manoj Tiwary his one-day international debut while leaving out Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel and the injured Yuvraj Singh.

Matthew Hayden also missed out because of injury but skipper Ricky Ponting was declared fit for the match. The hosts included all-rounder James Hopes, with Ashley Noffke making his debut.

Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, S Sreesanth, Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, James Hopes, Mike Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, Ashley Noffke.