Australia vs India, 2nd T20I: Match Preview – India’s tour of Australia 2020-21

The hosts Australia and the visitors India will meet in the second T20I of the ongoing three-match T20I series on Sunday (6th December) at Sydney Cricket Ground (Sydney).

The Men in Blue are leading this series by 1-0 after winning the first game of this series. While this shortest-format series started on last Friday (4th December) at Canberra, India won that match by 11 runs.

Another victory in this series will secure India’s T20I series-winning dream in this tour, while Australia can’t afford another defeat in this series.

Australia vs India, 2nd T20I: Match Preview

Australia

After remaining unbeaten in the home T20Is in the entire 2019, Australia suffered a defeat in their first home T20I in this calendar year (2020) during the last match. Their bowlers provided a very good start, but KL Rahul and the middle-order batsman Ravindra Jadeja took away that game.

Chasing down the 162 runs target in that last T20I, their openers provided a good start in the powerplay but failed to maintain that momentum after the powerplay. Moises Henriques highly impressed in the last game with his all-round performances, but he didn’t get proper support from his teammate.

Even though David Warner is not present in the T20I series, they still have a strong T20I side. However, they need to put a strong team performance to come out from their present inconsistency issue in this shortest format.

Meanwhile, ahead of the second game of this T20I series, the Cricket Australia has released Cameron Green for Australia A, and Nathan Lyon has replaced him in the T20I squad.

Full Squad

Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, D’Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa

Recent T20I form (Oldest to latest): Won, Lost, Lost, Won and Lost.

India

The visitors India have made a great start in this T20I series by winning the opening game of this series. While they are still unbeaten in the T20Is in this calendar year after playing nine matches (won 8 matches, including 2 Super Over victories), they haven’t actually suffered defeats in the last 10 T20Is.

Virat Kohli-led Indian side will miss the last match hero Ravindra Jadeja as the concussion during that match has forced him to get ruled out from the remaining matches of this series. So, the Player of the Match award winner in the last game, the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who replaced Jadeja during the second innings of that match, is likely to replace injured Jadeja in the upcoming T20I.

Apart from this forced alteration, the visitors are likely to maintain the remaining playing XI members for the second T20I.

KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Hardik Pandya are in very good form with the bat as they have already proved it in this tour. While Deepak Chahar has made a good comeback in Men in Blue jersey during the last game, the left-arm pacer T Natarajan has impressed in his initial outings in limited-overs international matches. However, the team management needs to find out their powerplay issue, especially in bowling.

Full Squad

Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur.

Recent T20I form (Oldest to latest): Won, Tied (Won Super Over), Tied (Won Super Over), Won and Won.