Rohit Sharma discusses India selection decisions for Australia clash

While star opener Shubman Gill is battling an illness and his availability a concern, India still have plenty of choices to make when deciding the make-up of their playing XI for their first match of the World Cup.

One of them would be the combination of their bowling attack.

While Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav are likely locked down as starters in India's XI, there are still multiple ways in which the team could line up for this crucial fixture against familiar opponents Australia.

At No.8, India can go with Shardul Thakur or Ravichandran Ashwin to keep the batting longer while not compromising on the bowling. Mohammed Shami's inclusion, on the other hand, would make the tail slightly longer.

However, the skipper hinted that India might consider going with three spinners in Chennai, stating that it was "definitely an option" given the conditions and India's luxury of having an all-rounder of Hardik Pandya's quality.

"I don't really consider Hardik Pandya as just a seamer. He's a proper fast bowler, who can crank up good speed," Rohit said.

"So that gives us an advantage. That gives us that luxury of playing three spinners and three seamers as well you know so there's a possibility that we can play three spinners on this pitch with three seamers as well, so it gives us that balance gives us that number eight batting option as well.

"We have to come here again tomorrow afternoon and see what the pitch looks like but yeah, three spinners is definitely an option."

Ashwin's familiarity with his home conditions in Chennai could also be considered in deciding the final XI.

The Indian captain also highlighted a bilateral ODI earlier in the year at the same venue against Australia where India made a few errors that allowed the visitors to win and said that the team have learnt from the same.

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"For us, it will be very important that we stick to what we want to do as a team, focus on our strengths, and assess the conditions here," he said, adding that the pitch in Chennai can be "quite tricky".

"You got to assess in terms of how you want to bat, how you want to bowl, what lengths, line for the spinners as well. So, everything comes into play.

"We played against Australia on this very same venue in March and we were slightly behind in that game. But we exactly knew what went wrong for us. So hopefully we shouldn't repeat that mistake that we made in that game in March. But again, like I said, it's a fresh day, fresh game for both teams."

Rohit also acknowledged how formidable an opponent Australia are, underlining their remarkable history of World Cup titles and hoped India would get off to a winning start in what would be a special campaign for him as the captain of the side.

"It's a huge honour to be part of this World Cup team, firstly, and then being the captain," Rohit added.

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"The 50-over World Cup is the biggest sporting event in cricketing history. So, for me, this is the biggest event that I will be part of. And being the captain as well, yes, it's a huge honour. I don't know how to describe that because it's a big deal for me."

The captain also gave an update on the recovery of Gill from illness, stating that the opener was not yet ruled out but is still recovering.