Finally, Indian fans have something to get excited about. Their team has won the T20 series in Australia quite comfortably. This comes after a humiliating 4-1 loss in the 5-match ODI series, which saw the Indians capitulate without putting up even a semblance of a fight.
With Australia fielding a weakened team for the 3rd T20 to be played tomorrow in Sydney, we can’t why India wouldn’t complete a clean sweep of the T20s. T20 is after all the format the Indians are most comfortable with, having honed their skills in the IPL.
We have seen new heroes emerge – young Jaspreet Bumrah has created quite an impression in the T20s played so far. He bowls with a really strange action, the likes of which we have never seen before in a lifetime of watching cricket. But it seems to work for him as he bowls with pace and a good amount of control. He certainly has created an impression on the Aussies, emerging as India’s top wicket-taker in the 2 T20s so far with 5 scalps in his name.
Australia have seemingly given up on tomorrow’s T20, having sent most of the best players to New Zealand to prepare in time for the upcoming ODI series. The likes of Steven Smith, John Hastings, David Warner, Kane Richardson and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade have already left for New Zealand.
Australia will be without their T20 captain Aaron Finch, who pulled a hamstring during Friday’s loss in Melbourne. The worry is that Finch’s injury might rule him out of the T20 World Cup to be played in India this March. Finch is one of Australia’s 3 or 4 best batsmen, so he will be missed dearly, if that were to occur.
But maybe not – as there’s a readymade replacement for Finch in Usman Khawaja. Khawaja has been the big hope of Australian cricket for many years now, without really doing much. He has been given opportunities in the past, which he messed up badly largely because of inexperience.
Now though, Khawaja is in a sort of form that has been rarely seen in cricket, blasting 100s at will, completely dominating all bowling attacks, whether in Test cricket or in the Big Bash, Australia’s domestic T20 competition. So, finally, he gets his opportunity to play in a T20 for Australia. One expects Khawaja to make the most of it.
Other much vaunted Australian players such as Nathan Lyon and Shaun Tait haven’t really made much of an impression. Lyon looked pretty harmless in the one T20 match that he did get to play and Shaun Tait was far too expensive to justify his selection in the side. With Mitchell Johnson having retired and Mitchell Starc injured, this Australian bowling attack looks pretty much toothless.
The Teams
Australia: 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 Shane Watson (capt), 3 Chris Lynn, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Usman Khawaja/Travis Head, 6 Cameron Bancroft (wk), 7 James Faulkner, 8 Andrew Tye, 9 Nathan Lyon/Cameron Boyce, 10 Scott Boland, 11 Shaun Tait.
India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish Nehra.
Match Conditions
Runs, lots of runs – that’s the forecast for tomorrow at the SCG. No chance of rain whatsoever. The bowlers are in for it.
Watch India play Australia in the 3rd T20 live from SCG at 2:08 pm this Sunday!
