Sydney: India has been presented with the golden opportunity of ending the white-ball leg of their tour to Australia with a 3-0 T20I sweep without truly hampering their Test series preparations. While the Men in Blue will look to make the best of this situation and end on a high, the Aussies will look to play for pride on Tuesday (December 8) at Sydney Cricket Ground.
Hardik brought up his match-winning T20I score of 42* (22) in the 2nd T20I against Australia on Sunday which also won him the Man of the Match. Incidentally, he also brought up his personal best score in ODIs just earlier in this tournament. Sharpening his role as the finisher might just be the beginning of the end of India’s middle-order woes in the long run.
A well deserved Man of the Match award for @hardikpandya7 for his match-winning knock of 42*#TeamIndia take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three match T20I series.#AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/mlC3e3RSN9
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 6, 2020
The visitors have won every game this youngster has played, to say the least. Bagging 3 wickets at Canberra and 2 more at Sydney, Natarajan’s run has shown enough intent to cause damage to a batting line-up as deep and experienced as the hosts. Giving important breakthroughs whenever the Men in Blue have needed it, Natarajan’s performance is sure to watch out for in the final T20I.
Natarajan picks up his third wicket as Starc is bowled out for 1.
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 4, 2020
Australia 127/7 pic.twitter.com/HfW0HPJKLv
With scores of 30 (22), 52 (36), and 40 (24) respectively, KL Rahul, Dhawan, and Kohli provided India with the perfect start in the second T20I. Without over-reliance on a single player, the top order has done well in setting a solid foundation for a good total.
The Aussies faced a massive blow in the second T20I when skipper Aaron Finch missed out with a niggle. However, stand-in skipper Matthew Wade’s 32-ball 58 along with some decent partnerships in the middle helped Australia put on a challenging 194 runs for India to chase.
An explosive innings at the top from Australia's newest captain Matthew Wade! #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/edWNYMsA9b
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 7, 2020
While the hosts bowled reasonably well, it looked like they particularly missed the experience of Josh Hazelwood and Mitchell Starc. Though Andrew Tye and debutant Daniel Sams performed decently, they would like to have answers for how to put a stop to the likes of Pandya, Kohli and Dhawan better.
A fine 50-run partnership comes up between #TeamIndia openers @klrahul11 & @SDhawan25
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 6, 2020
Live – https://t.co/HlRQEpMWw8 #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/ERyQPGgqQD
Having won the series, the Men in Blue will look to rest some of the bigger players with the all-important Test series coming up. With nothing to lose, Australia will want to test their bench strength, mix and match players, and see where the team stands before the same.
The Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (Captain), 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.
Australia: Aaron Finch (Captain), D’arcy Short, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (WK), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott, Mitch Swepson, Nathan Lyon, Moises Henriques, Andrew Tye, Daniel Sams, Matthew Wade (WK).
