Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat against India in the one-off Twenty20 international at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
India made a couple of changes to the team that won the Twenty20 World Cup final against Pakistan last month.
Virender Sehwag replaced Yousuf Pathan, while Murali Kartik came in for all-rounder Joginder Sharma.
Matthew Hayden, who has recovered fully from his hip injury, was included in Australia's line-up. He missed the last two one-dayers of the seven-match series against India, which the visitors won 4-2.
Left-armer Mitchell Johnson, who played in the ODI series, was replaced by all-rounder Ben Hilfenhaus.
India and Australia have played only one Twenty20 international between them, with India emerging triumphant in the semi-finals of the World Cup.
It is a carnival atmosphere at the stadium with dancers entertaining the crowd, who started to pour into the stadium as early as 1500 local time, four hours before the scheduled start of play.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Yuvraj Singh (vice-captain), Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, S Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, Rudra Pratap Singh, Rohit Sharma, Murali Kartik.
Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain), Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Brad Hodge, Brett Lee.