MELBOURNE: High on confidence after winning the first Twenty20 International, India will look to press home the advantage and seal off the three-match series when they take on Australia in the second T20I here on Friday.
India find themselves ahead of the hosts for the first time on this tour, a position of confidence that they didn’t enjoy for the duration of the ODI series.
The ‘Men in Blue’ would be keen to close the series out early, so that they get a chance to experiment in the last match in Sydney. Same 11? Hitting the right balance for the playing eleven has been the concern for the Indian team. Picking Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina allowed captain MS Dhoni the freedom to choose his bowling attack as per both experience and requirements, devoid of the baggage of the ODI series. Ravichandran Ashwin duly returned to the side, and along with Ravindra Jadeja, gave a precursor of things to come in the sub-continent in the next two months. And with Jasprit Bumrah impressing on debut, it gave the management further confidence to draft in Hardik Pandya as well, banking on extra overs that Yuvraj-Raina could bowl if need be. Thus, it will take a major upheaval in their plans, or a freak injury for India to break away from the current combination. Raina did well enough to play a supporting role in the first T20, but more is expected of the current Indian middle order. Yuvraj, too, would be keen to get some proper game-time under his belt. Meanwhile, Australia are under pressure, perhaps for the first time this summer. Perhaps these bilateral contests do not excite them enough, and as such they are not able to zero down on the best combinations and suffer in World T20s as a result. For a team that is constantly on top of the charts in the five-day format, and has won five ODI World Cups, this could be one of the few plausible reasons for their poor T20I record. And once again, their attention is diverted towards the tour of New Zealand post this contest. Australia will certainly be boosted by the availability of Glenn Maxwell, but skipper Aaron Finch has bigger problems in his hands.PTI
