Stoinis puts hand up for pivotal role

He's been the man with the golden arm at different stages already this summer and now it seems Marcus Stoinis could be making a case for becoming Australia's go-to T20I death bowler.

Stoinis collected two wickets in a high-pressure final over at the Gabba on Wednesday night to seal a much-needed victory for Australia in the first of three T20Is against world number two ranked India.

The match had looked in safekeeping for the hosts until a dramatic late turnaround set the scene for a thrilling finale, and it was Stoinis who held his nerve to deliver the win.

"He's very confident," said captain Aaron Finch post-match. "He's been practicing it a lot. (Death bowling is) one string he wants to add to his bow.

"And going in with the three frontline quicks, Stoinis as the allrounder, he's the one we get to do that job at the end and he did it beautifully.

"His plans were nice and clear and simple and he executed well under pressure."

Stoinis elaborated on the plans that allowed him to strike twice in the frenetic closing stages, with the wide expanses of the Gabba critical, with Dinesh Karthik and Krunal Pandya caught on the long-off and long-on boundaries from slower deliveries.

"Finchy spoke to me earlier in the day and he said (him bowling in the final overs) could be an option if (Zampa) plays," he explained.

"It was a pretty simple plan – take the pace off the ball, make them hit to the long side and just commit to that one hundred per cent. So it was a clear plan."

It was a potentially breakthrough performance for Australia in the T20 format for the 29-year-old, whose 33 not out from 16 balls easily surpassed his previous highest score of 16, and as part of a 78-run stand with Glenn Maxwell, helped change the course of the contest.

"It was good fun," Stoinis said. "I've gone in in a lot of different situations over the past maybe 10 or so Twenty20s, so I've been shown a bit of faith going up a couple of spots – batting at five.

"We were just focused on building a little partnership and targeting the short boundary."

The victory snapped a four-match losing streak for Australia in the shortest form and revived memories of their successful 2017-18 summer, when they beat England and New Zealand in a T20I tri-series to surge to number two in the ICC rankings.

"We've got good memories in the team," Stoinis added. "We dominated the T20s last year, we were in really good form, we were one or two ranked in the world not long ago.

"So we're confident. Things haven't gone our way but we know we're a good side."

The series now moves to Melbourne, where game two will be played on Friday night at the MCG in front of an expected crowd of more than 70,000.

Gillette T20s v India 

November 21: Australia won by four runs (DLS method)

November 23: MCG

November 25: SCG

Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey, 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 T20 squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed.