It's simple for India. Defeat and their run of seven consecutive Twenty20 International series win come to an end. With that in mind, Virat Kohli & Co will take the field for the second T20I match against Australia.
India scored more runs in the rain-hit first match at The Gabba, Brisbane on Wednesday, but ended up losing by 4 runs. Other than the rain, there were at least two culprits for 'favourites' India's defeat.
One was sloppy fielding, and another was team combination. India dropped a couple of catches, including the one missed by skipper Virat Kohli. Then there was team management's persistence with KL Rahul, and also the preference of Krunal Pandya over Yuzvendra Chahal. Rahul, for all his unbound talent, is losing his footing in the international stage, while Pandya's presence boosted the batting prowess but his lacklustre bowling meant that India were chasing targets beyond their reach.
Considering these facts, Indian camp is likely to make some changes in the line-up for the second match. The best possible scenario would be to drop a pacer, which is against the convention when it comes to playing Down Under, and play three spinners. Meaning, the return of Chahal, in place for Khaleel Ahmed. Thus, India will have that extra batting option in Pandya.
Also, it will not be a surprise if Manish Pandey replaces underperforming Rahul, but it's unlikely to happen especially after skipper Kohli's endorsement for the middle-order batsman after the match on Wednesday. But again, team selection is best left to the team management. They know the best.
For the Aussies, an unchanged XI is predicted. Because, there's no weak-link when the team is winning.
All You Need To Know About The Match:
Date: November 23 (Friday)
Time: 1:20 PM IST (6:50 PM Local Time)
Venue: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
TV Guide: Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI)
Live Streaming: SonyLiv
Key Stats:
- The Gabba win was Australia's sixth in 23 matches since the ball-tampering scandal in March.
- In the same number of matches (none against Australia), India have won 18 times.
- Last time the two teams play a T20I series Down Under, in 2016, India blanked Australia 3-0.
- Realistically, Rohit Sharma can become the leading scorer in T20Is. He needs 58 more to go past Martin Guptill of New Zealand.
- Unrealistically, Virat Kohli can become the leading scorer. He is 165 behind Guptill's 2271.
- Shikhar Dhawan can improve his record most runs in a calendar year (648). He scored 76 in the first match to go past Kohli's 641 in 2016.
- Rohit can also become only the third batsman to score 600+ score in a calendar year, after Kohli and Dhawan. He needs 330 more runs to reach the mark.
- Jasprit Bumrah needs three wickets to become second Indian bowler with 50 or more T20I wickets after Ravichandran Ashwin (52).
- Andrew Tye, who took the wicket of Rishabh Pant at The Gabba, has the most wickets in a calendar year (30 in 2018 from 17 matches). And is likely to increase the count. Pakistan's Shadab Khan is second. (28 this year from 19 matches).
- In the previous 11 T20I matches, the average 1st innings score at MCG is 140, and 129 in the 2nd.
- Both the highest and lowest totals at the venue were scored by India, 184/3 vs Aus and 74/10 vs Aus respectively.
Likely XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul/Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott, Alex Carey (wk), Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Washington Sundar.
Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Ben McDermott, Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
