India vs Australia T20I Series Preview: Squads, Fixtures, History and Stats

The Australian Men’s Cricket Team, who had a tremendous series against New Zealand (a complete white-wash with 3-0) are coming to India to play a 3-match T20I series. This series will be a good warm-up for both the teams before heading to the T20I WC.  The Aussies played their last T20I in June 2022 against Sri Lanka and won the series 2-1.  On the other hand, team India are coming from a disappointing Asia Cup with losses against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super4 stage. Though the outing for India in Asia Cup didn’t go well, there are many positives to take away like - Kohli and Rohit coming back to form, Kohli’s century drought coming to an end after 1020 days, Hardik Pandya’s all-round performance and a death bowling option in Arshdeep Singh.

For the Aussies, David Warner has already been ruled out of the series against India. On Wednesday, the Australian Cricket Board announced their squad for the series against India. Surprisingly, the three “M’s”- Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis are not playing. Only time will tell if this becomes a gamble from team Australia to rest their key players just before the T20I WC or if this break helps the players to remain fresh for the WC. The core Indian squad remains the same as that of Asia Cup. As expected, Bumrah and Harshal Patel are back to the side after recovering from their injuries.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.

Australia Squad: Aaron Finch (Captain), Steven Smith, Tim David, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar, Cameron Green, Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Nathan Ellis

Fixtures:

Note: All matches start at 7.30 PM IST.

"Let’s revisit some memorable moments in the matches played between these 2 nations"

February 1, 2008 (Only T20I) – Australians proved why they are the World’s Best Team:

The maiden T20I played between India and Australia on Australian soil, turned out to be a nightmare for the men in blue as they were wrapped up for just 74 runs. This is also India’s lowest score in this format. On the other hand, the mighty Aussies chased this under 12 overs with nine wickets remaining.

January 31, 2016 – A sweet revenge from Men in Blue

In the year 2016, the Indian team white washed Australia in a three match T20I series in Australia. The final match of that series was an epic thriller with India chasing down the target in the final ball of the 20th over. Australia batted first and scored a mammoth total of 197/5 in 20 overs. Shane Watson smashed all over the park and celebrated his century in style. In response, the Indian team’s top order clicked with contributions from Rohit (52 from 38), Kohli (50 from 36) and Suresh Raina (49 from 25). When India’s leading all-rounder Yuvraj was at the crease, India needed 17 from the last over. He had scored just 5 runs in his first 9 balls. But as the game-changer he is known to be, he drifted the game towards our side by hitting 10 runs in the first 2 balls. When India needed 2 runs from 1 ball, Suresh Raina finished off in style by hitting a boundary to seal the series 3-0.

Players to watch out: Indian top order batters – Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli has scored 718 runs from 18 matches played against Australia and has been dismissed 14 times.  Rohit Sharma played 16 matches and scored 318 runs with 14 dismissals. KL Rahul played just 4 matches and scored 205 runs with 3 dismissals. Indian top order batsmen have a good record against the mighty Aussies.

In T20, scoring runs alone is not sufficient. The pace at which the runs are scored proves very crucial. important. Virat Kohli has a tremendous Strike Rate of 141.9, whereas Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul’s Strike Rate is around 127.

We are using 3 KPIs for the analysis

1. BPB – Balls Per Boundary
2. BPD – Balls Per Dismissal
3. RPI – Runs Per Innings

BPB is almost the same for all three batsmen. Virat Kohli is far ahead of Rohit and Rahul in BPD and RPI.

After coming back from his knee injury, early this year, Hardik Pandya captained Gujarat Titans to their first title victory in the debut season. Hardik played a vital role in Asia Cup against Pakistan in the league stage match, winning MoM for his all-round brilliance.

Hardik’s stats against Australia is quite impressive - 103 runs in 4 matches with Strike Rate and Balls Per Boundary as 139.19 and 7.4 respectively. This shows how vital he can be towards the final overs of the innings.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar vs Aaron Finch

Every encounter between India and Australia, the face-off between Australian captain Aaron Finch and India’s speedster B Kumar will be exciting. Finch has scored only 52 runs in 13 innings against B Kumar with SR of 91.22. B Kumar has dismissed Finch thrice. Will Finch be able to get the better of Kumar this time or will Bhuvi continue his dream-run against the Australian opener?

Y Chahal vs G Maxwell

Yuzi Chahal has always had a slight upper hand against his ex-RCB team-mate Maxwell. In 12 T20I encounters, Maxwell has been dismissed 5 times by Chahal. Also, Maxwell has scored 120 runs against Chahal with a whooping Strike Rate of 171.42. Can the Spin master check-mate the Big-Show (Maxwell) this time?

Toss Analysis:

As T20 is considered a batsman’s game, many captains prefer to chase down the target after winning the toss. The PCA stadium in Mohali which will host the first T20I between India and Australia is no different. As per the previous match results, in most cases, the team bowling first has ended up winning the match. But Nagpur’s VCA Stadium is one among the few venues where batting first has been an advantage. 75% of the matches played here were won by the team batting first.