Team India after a break of more than a week will be back in action to finalise their preparations for the T20 World Cup in Australia in a month’s time. The Men in Blue received a setback or rather a reality check as they were eliminated early from the Asia Cup 2022, contrary to many expectations.
While many will say that there wasn’t too much wrong for the Indian team, however, what did go wrong cost them the games in a format that survives on margins. The middle-order trio failed together in two games in a row, KL Rahul took some games to come into his usual self, apart from Arshdeep Singh, others gave runs at the death and the team is still not sure who will take Ravindra Jadeja’s place in the side.
There are still questions but these six matches will provide an opportunity to the team to find the answers of those questions. India have a 13-9 advantage over Australia but that counts for very little, especially when you know that opposition just won a World Cup 10 months ago.
Australia too have their problems with injuries and the form of skipper Aaron Finch but there’s an excitement around this group as they are set to launch their own ‘Brahmastra’ the X-Factor Tim David into the international arena for the first time in yellow and green. David as he has shown in the last year or so can rip apart any bowling line-up on his day and that makes him such a dangerous commodity when he joins the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade, and Marsh and Stoinis when they are fit.
The series promises to be a humdinger between two very strong units and here’s all you need to know about the three games:
Full Schedule
September 20 – 1st T20I, Mohali
September 23 – 2nd T20I, Nagpur
September 25 – 3rd T20I, Hyderabad
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia: Aaron Finch (Captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa
Telecast and Streaming details
All three matches will begin at 7:30 PM IST. The matches will be live on Star Sports Network on TV and the live streaming will be available on the Disney+ Hotstar app and website.
