Australia's Mitchell Marsh believes that the upcoming white-ball series against India will be the perfect buildup for the 2025/26 Ashes. Australia and India will engage in an eight-match limited-overs series across October and November and Marsh will be leading the hosts in both formats, as Pat Cummins remains on the sidelines due to a back injury.
He also commented on the 'great rivalry' Australians share with India and that they have a lot of respect for the opposition which will be turning up against
them. The star all-rounder also believes that playing a champion team like India before entering the Ashes against England later this year serves as a perfect timing, which comes as a huge challenge for either sides.
"We’ll have all the guys building towards the Ashes but everyone loves playing against India. We’ve got a great rivalry and great respect for them as a team. It’s literally perfect timing to be playing against India in the lead-up to an Ashes series. It’s going to be massive,” stated Marsh, as quoted by Fox Sports.
Marsh will be leading Australia's ODI unit in the absence of Cummins. The 2023 World Cup-winning skipper is currently recovering from his injury. Cummins is recovering from the lumbar bone stress injury in his lower back and has not played competitive cricket since July.
As far as India are concerned, they will see the return of the Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli duo with respect to the 50-over leg of the series. The stars will be in action for three ODIs, starting October 19 in Perth. Five T20Is will follow the third one-dayer. Shubman Gill will be India's captain in ODIs for the first time, taking over the reigns from the legendary Rohit Sharma.
AUS vs IND 2025 — Squads
Australia ODI squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Renshaw, Matthew Short, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
Australia T20I squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
India ODI squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (vc), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal
India T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (vc), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar
