India's spin clinic won't change pace plan: Hazlewood

Josh Hazlewood is backing Australia's pace-centric approach to the World Cup despite the heavy influence of spin in their first-up loss to India in Chennai.

The tournament hosts unleashed a three-pronged spin attack against the five-time champions with Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin sharing six wickets between them as Australia were bowled out for 199 on Sunday.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium surface had been tipped to favour spin and Pat Cummins' decision to bat first played into India's hands with their trio of slow bowlers enjoying the better of the slow and dusty conditions before dew set in and sped up the pitch under lights.

Josh Hazlewood – Australia's best bowler with 3-38 from his nine overs – told reporters following the six-wicket loss that once the dew arrived it made it harder for Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell to grip the ball.

The experienced duo of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul – who made 85 and 97 not out respectively – blunted the Aussies' spin pair, who went wicketless and lacked the potency of their Indian counterparts.

"It obviously felt like it probably spun more in the first half," Hazlewood said.

"Definitely the dew came in but early in our bowling innings it was doing enough when it was still dry.

"The dew came in a little bit at the end and the (two) balls got a little bit wet and soft, but I felt like we created enough chances early to make a mark.

"The wicket was up and down a little bit so you felt in the game as a quick in particular. I think it got a little bit better to bat on right towards the end, it just felt a little bit easier as the ball was skidding on a little bit."

Australia play their next two matches in Lucknow, one of India's newer international venues where only four ODIs have been played.

Conditions are expected to again suit slower bowlers with spin responsible for 50 per cent of the wickets in those four 50-over matches at the venue.

But Hazlewood denied they felt light on in the spin department for the World Cup with only Zampa and Maxwell, along with part-timer Marnus Labuschagne, available until Travis Head recovers from a fractured hand.

Ashton Agar was left out of the squad with a calf concern.

"Our quicks are our strength up front as we saw tonight," Hazlewood said.

"We might come up against these conditions again at other grounds throughout those (remaining) eight games so it'll just be about the batting group coming up with the plan (to combat the spin) and sticking to it.

"We might have to reassess and say 'yeah, 260 is a good score rather than 300-plus' to what we've seen on a few other grounds.

"I think Glenn Maxwell is a frontline spinner in particular in India. He's bowled a lot here throughout IPL and one-dayers so we've got two spinners and three quicks as a lot of the other teams do.

"I don't feel that we're short at all."

India's left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep – who collected the prized wickets of David Warner and Maxwell in his spell of 2-42 – advocated going spin-heavy.

"You can play with three spinners here, other sides as well if you've got three quality spinners it becomes very difficult for our batting unit," he said.

Also a feature of India's 30 overs of spin was how often they challenged the stumps, noticeably more than the Australian pairing.

At the 35-over mark of India's innings, only a quarter of Zampa's deliveries were going on to hit the stumps, while Maxwell would have hit the stumps 27 per cent of the time, compared to Ashwin (45 per cent), Jadeja (40 per cent) and Kuldeep (32 per cent).

"Especially in the ODI and white-ball formats, you just keep hitting the stumps, that's important for any spinner," Kuldeep said.

"When you play Tests, you can go wide but in ODI format (with) restrictions on the field position, (if) you just keep hitting the stump there's a lot of chances for yourself to get wickets.

"That's what we were trying, and we've been speaking to in meetings as well, just keep hitting the stumps."

Australia's 2023 ODI World Cup fixtures

October 8: Defeated by India by six wickets

October 12: v South Africa, Lucknow (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

October 16: v Sri Lanka, Lucknow (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

October 20: v Pakistan, Bengaluru (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

October 25: v Netherlands, Delhi (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

October 28: v New Zealand, Dharamsala, 4pm AEDT

November 4: v England, Ahmedabad (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

November 7: v Afghanistan, Mumbai (D/N), 7.30pm AEDT

November 11: v Bangladesh, Pune, 4pm AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa