Overview
- A toss win for Mitchell Marsh set India to bat first at 7:15 p.m. local time (1:45 p.m. IST) in Melbourne.
- Australia made one change with Matthew Short replacing Josh Philippe, while India stayed unchanged and Arshdeep Singh remained on the bench.
- The BCCI confirmed Nitish Kumar Reddy is ruled out of the first three T20Is due to neck spasms.
- Forecasts signaled a chance of showers around match time at the MCG, raising the risk of interruptions after the Canberra washout.
- Cricket Australia confirmed a sellout; a pre-match tribute honored 17-year-old Ben Austin, with both teams wearing black armbands, and the game is televised on Star Sports with streaming on JioHotstar in India.