Australia, who have just won the ODI World Cup, will hope for another impressive show against the Men In Blue as the two engage in a five-match T20I series, starting from Thursday in Visakhapatnam. With senior pros rested, Suryakumar Yadav will be leading a young Indian unit. Australia, on the other hand, have some of their title-winning players in their squad, which include World Cup final hero Travis Head.
Head scored a match-winning 137(120) as Australia chased down a modest 241 in 43 overs and won the match by six wickets. While he was the aggressor, Marnus Labuschagne, who is not part of the squad, played a perfect second fiddle. Together they added 192 runs for the fourth wicket after Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah combined to reduce India to 47/3 in 7 over
While India struggled to get boundaries, hitting just four between overs 11 to 50, Head singlehandedly smashed 15 fours and 4 sixes.
However, will Head feature in the series opener still remains a question and when asked the same to Mitchell Marsh, who too has returned home, said it’ll be a miracle if he plays. Head’s availability for the series opener is still in doubt due to fitness concerns.
“Heady was definitely in the votes. I’m not sure he’ll be playing that game. I’m no selector or coach but if he plays that game it will be a miracle,” Marsh said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
While one World Cup has just concluded, without wasting much time the focus now shifts to next year’s T20 showpiece.
After Visakhapatnam, the teams will travel to Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Raipur and Bengaluru from November 23 to December 3. Australia then travel back home for the start of the home Test summer against Pakistan on December 14 in Perth.
India, on the other hand, travel to South Africa for an all-format series, which starts from December 10 in Durban.
