India aim to seal series with another dominant victory over Aussies

PTI

Guwahati, November 27

With their batting firing on all cylinders, India aim to take an unassailable lead when they face Australia in the third T20 International here tomorrow.

After near-flawless batting performances in back-to-back wins, the new-look Indian team would like to keep its foot firmly on the pedal at the Barsapara Stadium, where the pitch has traditionally been a batting belter. And there is no reason to think that the 22-yard strip will be any different this time also.

2 In the two completed T20Is in Guwahati, India lost to Australia in 2017 and beat South Africa last year

344 Rinku Singh’s strike rate of 344 in the second T20I was the highest by a batter in matches between India and Australia. The previous best was 288.88 when Shikhar Dhawan smashed 26 from nine balls in 2016

3 The last time Australia lost three straight T20Is was in July-August in 2021 when they had a four-match losing streak against West Indies and Bangladesh

The 40,000 spectators expected to fill up the stands would expect a run-fest from the talented Indian batting unit, which would want to add to the 36 fours and 24 sixes it has collectively hit across the two games.

For Australia, some of their senior players like Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa have been in India for nine weeks and fatigue is showing. All the four will play in Big Bash League next month. For Smith, the Pakistan Test series would be his next international assignment.

India’s top-order has ticked all the boxes with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and skipper Suryakumar Yadav hitting a half-century each.

Ishan Kishan, showing no signs of rustiness even after spending nearly five and a half weeks on the bench during the World Cup, has got two half-centuries under his belt.

Rinku Singh, with two superb rear-guard knocks, has consolidated his status as the designated finisher in this format and is slowly ensuring a permanent No. 6 slot for him in this batting order ahead of the T20 World Cup.

However, Tilak Varma, who has not missed any of India’s last 12 T20 Internationals, is in a tricky place as he bats at No. 5 and he faced just 12 deliveries in the last two games.

In the first game, he scored 12 runs off 10 balls with two boundaries in a chase of 209. In the second game, he faced the final two deliveries of the Indian innings as Rinku was promoted ahead of him to give the final push.

It would be interesting to see if skipper Suryakumar himself drops a place down in the batting order and gives his younger colleague a chance to play a few more balls and get some runs under his belt before Shreyas Iyer comes calling in the next game in Raipur.

Considering the nature of the tracks on offer, the Indian bowlers put up a far improved performance in the second game after conceding 208 runs in the series-opener.

While the dot ball count in the first two games remained nearly the same — 45 in the first and 44 in the second — what significantly improved was the decrease in boundary percentage while defending in dew-laden conditions in Thiruvananthapuram.

From being hit for 24 fours in the first game, the same Indian attack cut it down to half in the next game. — PTI

Surya always there for us: Prasidh

Suryakumar Yadav’s leadership philosophy is very similar to his T20 batsmanship — uncomplicated; and that’s what is helping the young brigade perform well, said pacer Prasidh Krishna. Prasidh got the skipper’s backing as he came back strongly in the second game with three wickets after being hit for 50 in the first. Asked about Suryakumar’s captaincy style, Prasidh replied, “It shows in the way he bats — very similar in his captaincy as well. He trusts his players, backs all of us to do what we want to do and he’s there right behind us to support if there’s anything going wrong. We have freedom to go and execute our plans out there and everyone trusts each other in the team.”

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