Indian cricket team’s journey in the Australia tour is going to begin on Wednesday (November 21) with the first T20I of the three-match T20I series at The Gabba (Brisbane). The match will start at 13:20 IST (17:50 local)

Australian cricket team

The Australian cricket team is currently struggling in the international cricket due to missing some of their crucial players at present. While their recent away performances are not so impressive, even in the T20I cricket too, their home performances have also started to downfall as recently they lost the three-match home ODI series and one-off home T20I against South Africa.

However, the T20I format is possibly the best format for the present Australian cricket team.  They have an enough powerful and attacking batting strength for this shortest format, especially when they are playing at their home venues.

Most of the host bowlers, who have both been selected for the T20I series, are the T20 specialist and have the abilities to take control of a T20 game at least on their home grounds.

Form guide (last five T20Is; starting with most recent): Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost and Won

Also read: Aaron Finch: We are very confident in T20I format

Indian cricket team

The Indian cricket team is currently running in a brilliant form in every format. Even in the recent away tours, especially in the limited-overs series, India’s performances have improved widely. Since July 2017, India hasn’t lost any T20I bilateral series.

Indian pacers are in brilliant form and have evolved as the strongest point of the team. The most effective point is that these bowlers are adapting with the unfamiliar conditions in very quick time. Besides that, the Indian wrist-spinners are providing good support and sometimes they are becoming the actual game changer, even outside the Asian soil.

The top-order batsmen are in brilliant forms and their T20I middle-order batting is also better. However, the long ground can bring an additional challenge for the batsmen while their middle-order batting hasn’t many experiences outside the Asian soil.

Form guide (last five T20Is; starting with most recent): Won, Won, Won, Won and Lost

Also read: India Announces 12-man squad Ahead Of The Brisbane T20I

Full squads

Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey (vc/wk), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), Khaleel Ahmed, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Krunal Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav

Key Stats Preview:

• India and Australia have played 15 T20Is where Australia has won only 5 times and India has won 10 times.
• India and Australia have played six T20Is in Australia where the hosts Australia has won only twice and the visitors India has won four times.
• It will be India’s first T20I at The Gabba (Brisbane). Australia has played three T20Is at this venue where they have won twice and lost the other one.
• Australian pacer Andrew Tye (16 T20I wickets at home) is five wickets away to become the most wicket-taking Australian bowler in the home T20I career. Currently, he is the joint third highest wicket-taking bowler in this list.
• Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma (2,207 T20I runs) needs to score 65 more runs to become the leading run-scorer in the T20I history. New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill is on the top position at present with 2,271 T20I runs.