Guwahati: Team India, led by Suyakumar Yadav, will be looking to seal the 5-match T20I series against Australia at Barsapara Cricket stadium here on Tuesday.
India have won the first two matches, and are leading the series by 2-0, while Australia is yet to open their account as their players are battling fatigue after a long outing at the just-concluded World Cup campaign.
India's top-order batsmen have excelled in the first two matches, except Tilak Varma who was fortunate enough to face less than 20 balls in the series so far, and his place is up for grabs with the return of Shreyas Iyer who was rested after an hectic World Cup.
Varma may not find a place in the team for the fourth match, not because of a question mark on his batting abilities, but to the given circumstances of drafting in Shreyas who would take over the mantle of vice-captaincy from Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Therefore, Varma would be keen to make his presence felt in tomorrow's match at Barsapara Stadium and cement his place, provided he is lucky enough to get a good outing. It will be interesting to see whether Suryakumar himself drops down the order to give an opportunity for Varma to have a go before Shreyas returns.
After putting up excellent performance in the first two matches, Team India would like to go for the kill without any fear on a pitch traditionally suiting batsmen.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Gaikwad and Suryakumar have been successful in scoring half-centuries. Ishan Kishan has scored two consecutive half-centuries despite warming the bench for the most of time during the World Cup.
Rinku Singh, has showcased his talent in the first two matches where he proved to be a gamechanger, and will be keen to cement his place at the sixth position before the T20 World Cup.
As far as India bowlers are concerned, they bowled well compared to the first match. After giving away a lot of runs against Josh Inglis and Steven Smith in Visakhapatnam, Prasidh Krishna made a strong comeback by taking three wickets in the second match.
Arshdeep Singh and Ravi Bishnoi gave their best shot in the last match at Thiruvananthapuram.
Squads
India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Australia: Matthew Wade (captain), Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Mathew Short, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa
Timing: The match will start at 7 pm. (UNI)
