Today in Mohali, a yet another crucial game of World Cup T20 tournament India will take on Australia in a Group 2, a straight knockout match between two mighty contestants India and Australia. Both the teams have arrived here not via long and winding roads, but short and parallel ones. Now, 12 days after the tournament proper began, the parallels will end, with one of these teams to move through to the semi-finals.
Not that everything has been the same for these two teams. India’s selectors have stuck firm throughout the tournament, using the same 11 players in every match so far. Australia have made changes in every match and have used 14 of their 15 squad members, with fast bowler Andrew Tye the only man yet to be chosen.
Australia were similarly unsettled when these two teams met in a three-match series in Australia in January, India using only 11 players (the same 11 from this World T20) and Australia trying a whopping 19 different men. There’s flexible and then there’s frantic, and it’s not clear which Australia have been in T20 cricket recently. They lost all three games to India in that series, yet have done enough to get themselves one match from a World T20 semi-final.
The last time India played at home to Australia in a world event was the quarter-final of the 2011 World Cup, when MS Dhoni’s men triumphed in Ahmedabad. They went on to win that tournament at home, one of the greatest moments in Indian cricket. If they are to repeat that success in the World T20, they must first get through this quasi quarter-final.
India have not changed their side so far in the tournament; don’t expect them to start now. An unchanged XI is almost certain.
India is likely to retain the same team played against Bangladesh.
Indian team likely 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Yuvraj Singh, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish Nehra
Australia have ummed and ahhed in this tournament, unsure whether to stack the team with allrounders or trust the specialists, and their batting order has been constantly changing according to the team balance. It is just possible the batting group may stay the same for this game, though Nathan Coulter-Nile must be under pressure to retain his spot in the attack having failed to take a wicket in three games this tournament.
Australian team likely: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 David Warner, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Shane Watson, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Peter Nevill (wk), 9 Adam Zampa, 10 John Hastings/Nathan Coulter-Nile, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
