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India v Aus T20Is: All You Need to Know

One week, three matches, endless entertainment from two power-packed 20-over teams

The fixture

1st T20 - Sunday October 8, 12.30am AEST (Oct 7, 7pm local), JCSA International Stadium, Ranchi

2nd T20 - Wednesday October 11, 12.30am AEST (Oct 10, 7pm local), Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati

3rd T20 - Saturday October 14, 12.30am AEST (Oct 13, 7pm local), Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad

The squads

India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel.

Australia: David Warner (c), Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.


The form guide (past 10 matches, most recent first)

India: WLWWLLWWLL

Australia: WLLWWLWWLW

The history

The two nations have played 13 T20Is against each other, with India winning nine and Australia four. India have also won their past six against the Aussies - Australia's last win against them came at the 2012 World T20 - and India are three from three in home T20s against Australia.

The stat

It's been 559 days since captain Steve Smith last played a T20I, which was India's six-wicket victory that knocked the Aussies out of the 2016 World T20. And the wait will continue with the skipper ruled out of the series due to a shoulder problem.

The rankings

India: Currently ranked fifth, Virat Kohli's side could move up to second with a 3-0 series whitewash. Should they achieve that, more success in upcoming T20 campaigns against Sri Lanka and New Zealand could see them move to the No.1 spot and they could hold top position in all forms of the game.

Australia: Currently ranked a lowly seventh, Australia would be as high as third with a 3-0 win and they won't lose a position even with a 0-3 series defeat.

Aussies all set for T20Is against India

The players to watch

India: It's hard to top Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni as the most popular players in India, but young allrounder Hardik Pandya isn't far away from that title at the moment following an impressive run of form. The player of the series in India's 4-1 ODI series win, the 23-year-old will add plenty of spark to India's middle order and with the ball. An IPL winner with Mumbai, Pandya is one of the most prolific six-hitters in world cricket; he averages one per innings in all T20s and almost two per innings in ODIs, including 12 in just four innings during the ODI series.

Australia: Think 20-over runs in India, think David Warner. The left-hander has more than 7,500 T20 runs to his name in total and has been one of the Indian Premier League's best performers over the past few years. He's scored more runs (more than 2,000 of them) than anyone in the past three years of the IPL and led his Sunrisers Hyderabad to the title in 2016. He's fallen short in Test cricket in India in the past, but the 20-over format has been a different story for Australia's dynamic opener.

The players in the spotlight

India: A legend of Indian cricket, MS Dhoni's T20 form has been criticised by the likes of former skipper Sourav Ganguly this year and former Test opener Aakash Chopra said this week young keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant should have been given the gloves for this series, ahead of Dhoni. An IPL campaign below Dhoni's usual high standards and speculation that he won't push on until the next World T20 in three years has some calling for India to look to the future. But you'll hear no such criticism from the crowd in the first match, to be played in Dhoni's home city of Ranchi, with a sell-out crowd of 40,000 already confirmed at the JSCA Stadium. And the 10th anniversary of India's 2007 World T20 triumph, when Dhoni captained his young side to the trophy, ensures this nation's love affair with 'Mahi' is showing no signs of slowing down.

Australia: Axed from the ODI team and with his Test spot under a cloud, Glenn Maxwell has plenty to play for in this series. A T20 star with vast IPL experience, the Aussies will turn to Maxwell to offer some spark in the middle order as they look to post big runs against India's powerful batting line-up. But Maxwell's need for form extends far beyond this series; he'll be desperate for runs in the JLT Sheffield Shield upon his return to Australia in order to secure his Test spot for the Ashes and the T20 format might be just what he needs to break out of his current run drought and gain some confidence for the summer. That was certainly the case in his most recent T20I series; having been dropped from the ODI squad to play Sri Lanka, Maxwell responded with a record-breaking 145no in Pallekele, one of the best innings in T20 history.


Australia's Qantas Tour of India

Australia squad: David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel.

T20 Fixtures

October 7: JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi

October 10: Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati

October 13: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad