In-form
India will look to continue their domination of Australia and seal the
three-match Twenty20 International (T20I) series at the Barsapara
stadium today.
India, who are ranked fifth, started the T20 series on
a winning note outclassing the visitors in every department to register
a nine-wicket victory via the Duckworth/Lewis method in a rain-marred
match in Ranchi on Saturday. The hosts, who produced a brilliant
all-round show in the previous match, will hope to deliver a similar
performance.
The batting department will largely be dependent on hard
hitting batsmen Rohit Sharma, skipper Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni
and Hardik Pandya. Batsmen Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey and Kedar
Jadhav will only look to adding depth to the formidable India batting.
Kohli
might also fancy including veteran pacer Ashish Nehra in the team.
Pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will spearhead the bowling
department for the hosts. Wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep
Yadav will look to provide brakes on the Australian batting which failed
to look lethal in the previous match.
The seventh ranked Australian
side will look to re-work on their strategies to get back to winning
ways in the T20I series. Skipper David Warner along with Aaron Finch and
Glenn Maxwell will be the key batsmen for the visitors to get them off
to a flying start. The bowling will largely depend on pacer Nathan
Coulter-Nile and spinner Adam Zampa, who failed to click in the last
T20I.
Australia’s captain David Warner (right) plays football with teammates during a training session in Guwahati, India. (AFP)