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Australia vs India | 2nd T20I: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

Mayank Kumar


After handing out a defeat to the hosts in the first T20I, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team will now travel to Sydney - where the tour had begun, with a couple of dismal outings for the Indian team. Virat Kohli's men got their campaign back on track where they played as a solid unit to turn their fortunes around on the tour and averted a clean sweep in the ODI series and started the T20 series on a winning note. 

To be fair to the batsmen, they always kept the team in the game in the two matches that India lost in the series, but the bowlers left them with too much to do with the bat while chasing, but as the pressure increased, the bowlers, too, came back to their own and resurrected the side from the position where it all looked like a complete sweep was just a matter of formality.

Although the batting looked jaded at the top of the order, flourishing finishes have handed Indian the momentum to bowl with sort of confidence they were lacking in while the bowling unit is now looking like a well-oiled machine and the initial poor outing just symbolise off days instead of a grim picture that the critics were painting about it. 

Virat Kohli will be pleased to set the agendas and tactics in the coming T20 matches as the tourists are one shot ahead of hosts who are now depleted with a hip injury of Aaron Finch, potentially ruling him out of the T20 series. This could not have come at a worse time for Australia given Warner's absence. All in all, Virat Kohli’s men have turned around their tour in a matter of a couple of matches, exactly the number of matches their horrible performances had put question marks on the viability of tactics being followed by the side.

On the other hand, the hosts will have to look hard at their batting tactics in the middle overs which will be dominated by spinners. The spinning pair of Yuzvendra Chaha and Washington Sundar choked theme for runs by denying them loose balls to be hit for boundaries. The inability of batsmen in the Australian lineup to rotate strike made the case worse for the hosts as they lost all the momentum the openers D’arcy Short and Aaron Finch had provided with a fluent start.

The Australian bowlers in the first T20 game looked sharp early on, but the Pandya-Jadeja partnership threw all of that out of the window and made the hosts' attack look puzzled and short of confidence. Bowlers of Josh Hazlewood’s calibre have been found guilty of bowling full deliveries on off stump line with mid-off up in the ring in the last over while the experience of Jadeja and Pandya has made Sean Abbott’s impressive domestic record meaningless by proving him to ineffective underpressure. 

Coach Justin Langer will have his tasks cut out to bring back focus and confidence in the group after the hammerings the bowlers have received in the last five overs of the last ODI and the first T20.


The team management will have to keep the team away from focussing on off-field stuff as well as a majority of them including Langer himself went sulking after India brought Yuzvendra Chahal into the XI after Jadeja felt dizzy on receiving a blow to his helmet. They will have to combine as a team and focus on the on-field performances rather than worrying about off-field affairs that are beyond their reach.

AUS vs IND: Match Details

Match No. - 2nd T20I

Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney

Broadcast: SonyLIV, Sony Ten Network, DD Sports

Date and Timing: 06 December, 01:40 pm IST, 08:10 GMT

Pitch and Weather

The pitch at the SCG is expected to be a flat one and batsmen will be looking to make merry of the true nature of the pitch. There is lack of clarity on the nature of the pitch, but if the first two ODIs of the tour are anything to go by, it will be another run-fest where bowlers on either side will be put to the sword and will live on the mercy of batsmen.

The average 1st inning total at the SCG is 164 and out of six matches played at this ground, the team batting first has won only two matches while the team chasing has won the games on four occasions. The stat will determine the decision of the captain who will win the toss but Virat Kohli should not be reluctant to bat first, and back his spinners to come good if the SCG pitch will show any signs of wear and tear in the second innings.

The weather conditions in Sydney are likely to be perfect to play cricket as the temperature will hover around the 30-degree Celsius mark while the humidity, too will be around 30 per cent. There is no chance of rain and that would mean there will be a complete 40 overs of entertainment in the second T20 of the three-match series.

Team News

Australia

Captain Aaron Finch has reported a niggle in hip and may well miss out from the remainder of the series and that may well bring the duo of D’Arcy Short and Matthew Wade together at the top of the order, a role they have been successfully doing for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League.

All-rounder Cameron Green has been released by the hosts to play for the Australia A team and the off-spinner Nathan Lyon has been added to the T20 squad. Another all-rounder Ashton Agar remains unfit for the second T20 while the uncertainty over the recovery of Marcus Stoinis remains as the hosts too have a fair share of injury concerns to ponder over as they face a must-win situation in Sydney tomorrow.

In case Aaron Finch misses out from the XI, Matthew Wade is likely to take over the reins to lead the team in efforts to square off the series.

Expected XI

D'Arcy Short, Matthew Wade(C), Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Moises Henriques, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

India

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who had scripted a comeback for the tourists with whirlwind innings late in the piece has been ruled out of the remainder of the series due to concussion he faced after facing a blow from Mitchell Starc’s bouncer. Shardul Thakur who impressed everyone with a three-wicket haul in the final ODI of the ODI series has been added into the T20 squad.

Yuzvendra Chahal, who came into the match as a concussion substitute and garnered a lot of headlines will replace the all-rounder having produced a match-winning performance on the back of three-wicket haul from our overs.

Expected XI

Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (C), Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, T Natarajan, Yuzvendra Chahal

AUS vs IND 2nd T20: Dream11 team and suggestion

KL Rahul, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Moises Henriques, Shikhar Dhawan, Glenn Maxwell, Hardik Pandya, Mitchell Starc, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, T Natarajan

Captain: KL Rahul

Vice-captain: Glenn Maxwell

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