Australia arrive for limited overs tour

The Australian cricket team arrived here late on Friday night ahead of their limited overs tour of India.

Fresh from a 2-1 win in their recent Test series in Bangladesh, the Australians will play five One-Day Internationals (ODI) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) in India.

The Australians had seemed extremely vulnerable against spin bowling during the Bangladesh tour, specially during the their defeat in the second Test in Chittagong. That was their first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh.

The visitors from Down Under will be keen to put that behind them and redeem themselves with some good performances against India.

"Skipper Steve Smith leads a contingent of seven players, who were involved in the recently concluded tour of Bangladesh, who arrived on Indian soil on Saturday, joined by vice captain David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Patrick Cummins, Glenn Maxwell and Matthew Wade," Cricket Australia said in a statement on their official website.

"They joined their teammates who had travelled from Australia and arrived on Friday evening -- Aaron Finch, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, James Faulkner, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Marcus Stoinis and Travis Head.

"The ODI squad will commence training on Sunday, ahead of a 50-over warm-up game in Chennai on September 12," the statement added.

With head coach Darren Lehmann taking a break ahead of the Ashes, Australia will be guided by his assistant David Saker during the tour.

Meanwhile, the International Cricket Council have confirmed the limited-overs tour of India will not be affected by the new rules which come into force later this month.

According to the schedule released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday,the Australians will play a warm-up match against a Board President XI team in Chennai on September 12 followed by the first ODI at the same venue on September 17.

Kolkata will host the second ODI on September 21 followed by Indore (September 24), Bengaluru (September 28) and Nagpur (October 1). The T20Is will be hosted by Ranchi (October 7), Guwahati (October 10) and Hyderabad (October 13).

--IANS

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