INDIA tour of AUSTRALIA, 1st T20I at BRISBANE: PREVIEW

A very high-voltage T20I series between World Number two and three in T20Is, India and Australia begins tomorrow afternoon (13:20 IST). First match is at BRISBANE in a bouncy track, where fast bowlers get help always. India had whitewashed Australia in the last tour by 3-0 in T20IS under the captaincy of MSD two years ago. This time Dhoni is not in the team! What will happen this time? 

For India, six batsmen and four bowlers with a all rounder is the perfect combination in T20IS. This is the first time India will play with the specialist T20I squad, which is different from the ODI side. India did play a T20I series just now in home, against West Indies, but it's time for Australia, it's different! Once upon a time this "Australia" name was enough to give nightmares to the oppositions, but now it's not the same team anymore. But you can't underestimate Aussies, particularly when you're playing at their home soil. Indian skipper Virat Kohli is back in the team. He changed the batting position in England tour.  He promoted KL RAHUL at No3. But personally I feel he should play at no. 3, as he is the best batsman of the team. Rahul may play at 4, otherwise India may go with Manish Pandey or Shreyas Iyer too.  

In this tour, there are a lot of opportunity to prove the talent for the youngsters like Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Krunal Pandya, Khaleel Ahmed, Washington Sundor etc. Rohit and Dhawan should be the opening pair for India. India still has a problem in middle order. At no. 5 and 6 India need some hard-hitters who can accelerate the runs in slog overs. Pant can do this job, but he has to be more consistent. His form against WI T20IS series was not excellent, he scored just one half century and failed to score double digit in two games. Dinesh Karthik may play at No. 6. Now one interesting thing to watch out that who will keep for India, Pant or Karthik? At no 7 perfect choice should be Krunal Pandya, because of the balance. Very useful batsman and economical bowler too in T20s. He performed well in his debut series, against WI.  Now, in the bowling department, four bowlers should be Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Khalel Ahmed, Chahal may miss this match, as Brisbane will help fast bowlers. The performance of Indian Bowlers in recent series was very good.  Specially Kuldeep did well in England in LOIs. He is the main spinner of this team. This time India came in Australia with their one of the best Fast Bowling squads of the history! This might be the first time, Aussie batsmen are ducking and swing against Indian bowlers! India's main strength is Pace-duo Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah . Bumrah is economical bowler in death overs and also take wickets, probably best death bowler in LOIs today.  Khaleel also looked impressive with his both side ball-movement in last series against Windies.

Now let's talk about Australia - the land known for faster pitches and fast bowlers. Mitchel Starc, Pat Cummins, Jos Hazzlewood - none of them is in the T20I squad for Aussies, but still their bowling line-up is competitive! In fact their main strength is their bowling. Billy Stanlake, J. Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Stoinis are good bowlers in the T20Is. Spin department will be slightly weak point for them. In batting Australia may be lagging behind this time! Their opening pair Aaron Finch & D'Arcy Short is good but inconsistent. Aaron Finch is now out of form but he is very much destructive. His 172 runs is the highest individual score in T20Is. India must be worry about Finch. Chris Lynn is another danger man, a very good hard hitter and destructive batsman. Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis are the all-rounders of Australia. Actually they all have pedigree, but they are too much inconsistent!

Look for Some Stats:

Head to Head comparison in T20Is:

India: 10    Australia: 5 

Most Runs : 

Virat Kohli (423 Runs)

Most Wickets : 

Shane Watson , Ravichandran Ashwin , Jasprit Bumrah (10 wickets)

Win Percentages of 2018:

India- 81.20%

Australia- 56.25%

Key Players:

India- 

• Rohit Sharma (65 runs away from Highest Run-getter in T20 format, 82 runs away from Highest T20I runs in a calendar year, 4 more sixes required to become 1st Indian & 3rd in the world to hit 100 sixes in T20Is)
• Jasprit Bumrah (4 wickets away from 50 T20I wickets, right now T20I bowling avg is 19.65)

Australia-

• Aaron Finch (1288 T20I runs in 2018 with the avg of 53.66 and SR of over 175)

• Andrew tye (27 wickets in T20I in 2018, second most no. of wickets in 2018 after Rashid Khan)

Overall a exciting match is coming tomorrow at BRISBANE. In pen and paper, India is looking superior to Australia, so I'm going with Team India. Who are you going with? Let's comment on our blog/ social media pages.

Stat Source : Google

Photo Source: Google

Writer: Bikiran Majumdar

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