SYDNEY (AP) — India won the toss and elected to bowl against Australia in their Twenty20 match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.

Matthew Wade will captain Australia in the absence of Aaron Finch, and Daniel Sams will make his international debut.

Australia made three changes as it seeks to level the three-match T20 series, calling up Sams, Andrew Tye and Marcus Stoinis in place of Finch, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Starc has been released from the squad on compassionate grounds due to a family illness, while Hazlewood has a sore back.

“Back-to-back games, so we’re giving him (Hazlewood) a bit of rest,” Wade said at the toss.

The most interesting call made by Australia was the appointment of Wade as the country's 11th skipper in the shortest format.

Finch sustained a hip injury during Australia’s 11-run loss to India in the series opener. Steve Smith was the only other man in the T20 squad to have ever captained Australia, having performed the job in all three forms of the game before the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal in 2018.

Smith was eligible to return to the captaincy, having completed the 24-month leadership ban that Cricket Australia imposed as part of its response to the scandal.

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Australia: Matthew Wade (captain), D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.

India: Virat Kohli (captain), K.L. Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Yuzvendra Chahal.

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