Canberra: India and Australia battle it out in the first match of the T20I series at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Friday( December 4). After registering a win over Australia in the third and final ODI to boost their morale the Indian team will make a fresh start.
However, the services of pace bowler Shardul Thakur will be missed who was the pick of the bowlers in Wednesday’s ODI, talking three wickets including that of Steve Smith, to help in his side’s victory. But Jasprit Bumrah looked in his usual form in the last match and will be hoping to showcase his prowess with the bowling to looking to restrict Australia’s free-flowing batting line-up.
KL Rahul will likely be the opening partner of Shikhar Dhawan with youngster Washington Sundar may also feature in the first XI alongside Hardik Pandya, who will be a vital cog for the side with his recent form in the ODI series being so well both with bat and ball.
While Australia will look to dominate the visitors as they did in the ODI series. David Warner will miss the series due to injury and Matthew Wade will most likely partner Aaron Finch at the top. Glenn Maxwell had great ODI series scoring fifties in two of them with hopes to impress in the shortest format of the game.
\Steve Smith will be the key man in T20I’s as well for Australia after his stellar performance in the ODI’s while Aussies bowling line up will look to rattle apart the strong batting line up of India.
Australia possible playing XI: Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Sean Abbott, AJ Tye, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
India possible playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
