Rain played a spoilsport in India’s first T20I against Australia at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The Mitchell Marsh-led side won the toss and elected to bowl first, but barely any of their plans materialised. The Indian batters looked in perfect nick, playing an aggressive brand of cricket. Captain Suryakumar Yadav, who was struggling for runs, was questioned about his form ahead of the match, showed some promise, having made an unbeaten 39 runs off 24 balls, before the rain stopped the game for the second time.
Shubman Gill supported him well in the middle, scoring an unbeaten 37 runs off 20 balls. Abhishek Sharma, who arrived in Australia with huge expectations, failed to deliver as he made 19 runs off 14 balls. Ace pacer Nathan Ellis got the better of him in the fourth over of the match. Meanwhile, India were 97/1 in 9.4 overs, when the umpires were forced to stop the game again and following which, it was informed that the visitors won’t bat again in the match.
Meanwhile, as things stand and if the rain stops, here’s how much Australia will need to chase, depending on the number of overs that the umpires decide.
5 overs - 71
6 overs - 83
7 overs - 95
8 overs - 106
9 overs - 117
Arshdeep Singh dropped again
The Indian team management once again benched Arshdeep Singh from the playing XI. The left-arm seamer has clinched 101 wickets in 65 T20Is, and is the leading wicket-taker for India in the shortest format of the game. Yet, Arshdeep finds it difficult to feature in the mix as the team management prefers Harshit Rana for his batting abilities.
Australia (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Mitchell Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Philippe, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood
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