India captain Suryakumar Yadav’s luck with the coin continued to desert him as Australia won the toss in the second T20I at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and chose to bowl first. After the flik of the coin, both captains watched the coin closely, and when the result went against India, Suryakumar broke into laughter, humorously pointing towards his teammates and gesturing that they might need to perform a “puja” to change their fortunes, a moment that quickly went viral on social media.
India’s recent record with tosses has been dismal. Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill has lost 10 of his last 11 tosses, while Suryakumar’s own streak hasn’t been much better. He ended a 15-match losing run earlier during the Asia Cup against UAE but has since been back to familiar misfortune, losing both tosses so far in Australia. Meanwhile, Australian captain Mitchell Marsh extended his impressive run, winning his 19th toss and, true to form, choosing to field first once again.
India named unchanged playing XI
India backed the same playing XI for the second T20I at Melbourne. The team management was subjected to immense flak on social media for dropping Arshdeep Singh from the first T20I, but they stuck with the same game plan. The goal behind playing Harshit Rana is to strengthen the lower middle-order, and which is why Arshdeep, despite being India’s leading T20I wicket-taker, finds it difficult to break into the playing XI.
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Matthew Short, Mitchell Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood