Australia captain Aaron Finch said he won't obviously mind having to not contend with the might of Rohit Sharma during the white-ball leg of the summer but India have enough quality within their ranks for his boys to be on their toes.
Rohit is at the NCA in Bangalore, recovering from a hamstring injury picked up during the IPL 2020 in UAE and is hoping to get fit for the Test matches. In his absence, Mayank Agarwal is likely to fill the void at the top and form a new combination with veteran Shikhar Dhawan during the ODI series, beginning November 27.
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"He is obviously a great player and someone who has had quite a bit of success against us in the past. It (Rohit's injury) is unfortunate," Finch said in a virtual media interaction ahead of the series opener in Sydney.
"You want to play against the best players all the time but whoever he is going to replace him, possibly Mayank, he has been in great form as well. So you take away a lot of experience but you also bring in another quality player."
While injury to Mitchell Marsh leaves Australia slightly vulnerable with their balance in ODIs, Finch said they still have enough utility options in Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell to be able to sneak through the fifth bowlers' quota and retain depth in the batting line-up.
"I really like the balance of our side at the moment, don't get me wrong...What Maxi has shown in T20 cricket, in particular, is that his bowling keeps improving all the time and Stoinis has proved that as well with the amount of exposure he has had over the past couple of years bowling in the death," he said.
Finch, however, conceded it's easier to make-up 10 overs when you have three bowlers shouldering the burden for it.
"It is important and gives us a lot of flexibility," he said. "With Mitch, you can dissect the 10 overs a little bit easier but you are still expecting when the fifth bowler combination is bowling it will still have an impact on the game."
"It is not about picking an all-rounder for the sake of it, it is also a key bowling spot as well."
Finch then spoke on potentially rotating his players to manage their workloads for a series played less than three weeks after the IPL in another strict bio-bubble.
"As far as rotation goes, I think it is come, go down, how they are feeling personally whether it is mentally or physically. Guys are at totally different points in their preparation and workloads," he said.
"Some guys are coming off a decent Sheffield start to the season an some are coming off T20 cricket. It is just about managing that."
"In the current environment, it is really important to look after people's health as much as anything. Whether you just give them a couple of days off or week off just to get in their own bed is going to be crucial but it will be case by case," Finch added.
An area of focus for Australia will be Finch's own form with the bat after his struggles playing for RCB in trying conditions in UAE. The skipper gave an honest assessment of where it went wrong for him.
"I think, a combination of couple of things, T20 cricket can be really difficult when you are not quite at your very best, when you are trying to be really aggressive at the start of an innings..."
"I think that''s a time when if it is not going 100 per cent, you can get into a pretty bad run quite quickly, but it's just a few balance things, head positioning and my stands and small things like that."
"It (changes) hasn't been anything huge, it is just a few steps that I would generally go to when things haven't been as smooth as I would have want," Finch signed off.
The ODI series between Australia and India is part of the ICC Super League which determines qualification spots for the 2023 World Cup.
(Inputs from PTI)
