Adelaide/Calcutta: Glenn Maxwell will miss the T20I series opener against India, because of a lingering hamstring injury. Michael Di Venuto, who took over for the time being as Australia coach, said on Sunday in Adelaide. The Australian squad reached Adelaide on Sunday, where the first match of the series will be played on Tuesday.

"He has still got a little slight hamstring niggle... He will fly back to Melbourne and spend a few days at home and join the squad when we get there in a couple of days," Di Venuto told reporters.

With Maxwell's absence opening up a slot in the batting order, South Australian Travis Head may make his international debut on Tuesday, before his home crowd.

Di Venuto said the entire 17-man roster would feature in the series versus India, as selectors would want to take a good look at the players before selection their squad for the World T20, starting in India in March.

"Obviously there is a big carrot at the end of this with the World Cup team being picked, and you can only pick 15 people so we want to give people opportunities to see what they can do," he said.

The coach, however said he didn't want the players to treat the series only as a audition for the World Cup. "It is also important that they don't treat it as that," he said. "They have also just got to go out and play. If they're thinking about the World Cup they are likely to go out there and get a bit of stage-fright, so they have just got to play the game the way they have been playing. T20 is all about expressing yourself, backing your ability and taking the game on."

Batsmen Chris Lynn, Head and seamer Andrew Tye must impress in the three-game T20 series against India, to enhance their chances of making the World Cup team.

"We want to get a bit of momentum," Di Venuto added, saying Australia's fielding has to improve from the one-day series, even though they won it 4-1 against India. We have some fantastic T20 players who perform well in all competitions, but just haven't performed as a team when we have got to World Cups. We have never won the World T20 and that's something we would want to do."

Di Venuto has taken over as head coach for the T20I series from Darren Lehmann, who is in a Sydney hospital, being treated for deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Di Venuto said it remained unknown if Lehmann would be cleared to coach Australia during their next month's tour of New Zealand. "It was a bit of a scare yesterday with Boof (Lehmann) going for a scan and then straight into hospital with DVT," he said.

"The good news is he's on the road to recovery. I spoke to him this morning, he's in good spirits and his health is improving ... hopefully Boof will be right in a week or so."

Meanwhile, regular coach Lehmann was supposed to have been released from hospital on Sunday evening. But no confirmation was available till late at night.