In the first assignment of the year, India faced a tame Sri Lankan side in 3 Match T20 series. As expected, there was no contest between the two sides due to the massive gulf in the skill levels of two countries separated by an ocean. The next opponent is mighty threatening which means the upcoming series is going to be rather competitive and hence, watchable.
India will lock horns with 5 times world cup winners Australia in an ODI series consisting of 3 Matches in what happens to be the last series of their home season. The series will kick off on 14th January in Mumbai which will be followed by 2 more matches in Rajkot and Bengaluru on 17th and 19th January respectively.
Schedule:
- 1st ODI : 14th January 2020, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
- 2nd ODI : 17th January 2020, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
- 3rd ODI : 19th January 2020, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
India vs Australia statistical preview : Records on stake
Indian players
- Virat Kohli needs 2 centuries to surpass and 1 to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s 9 ODI 100s against Australia which is the most by any batsman against Australia. Virat has 8 tons against Aussies in 37 matches, Sachin scored 9 playing 34 more games.
- Kohli also requires 141 more runs to go past Inzamam’s 11739 runs in ODIs. It will make him the 6th most highest run scorer in ODIs. If he scores 111 runs in the series, it will make him become the fastest batsman to score 5000 runs as captain in ODI cricket
- RohitSharma needs 56 runs to complete 9000 ODI runs. He will be the third quickest batsman after Kohli and AB De villiers to get to this landmark. He also has 7 ODI centuries against Australia.
- KuldeepYadav needs only 1 wicket to complete 100 wickets in ODIs. He missed the chance of becoming the quickest Indian to this landmark but he can be the second quickest along with Bumrah to achieve this feat if he takes the solitary required wicket in the first match. He currently has 99 wickets in 56 ODI matches.
Australian players
- David Warner is only 10 runs away from 5000 ODI runs. He will be the fastest Australian to this record beating the record held by Dean Jones till now.
- Aussie speedster Mitchell Starc needs 3 wickets to surpass Nathan Bracken’s 174 wickets. It will put him on the 7th rank in the list of most successful Australian bowlers in terms of wickets. Interestingly, he has only played 1 match on Indian soil in all these years.
- His partner Pat Cummins needs just 4 wickets for his 100 ODI wickets.
When they met the last time
When Australia landed in India last year, very few people gave them a chance to win an away series against an in-form Indian side. That too when they were going through a string of losses in this format. The Aussies, known for their world beating attitude had lost 5 series in a row before they took on mighty India in India. To make the matter worse, they lost the first 2 matches of the series in Hyderabad and Nagpur and were on the brink of losing 6th series in a row when they went to Ranchi.
Once the series came to the conclusion, Australian team were seen posing with the trophy in their hand. The tables had turned and Australia had comeback to take the series in an unexpected way.
- They became only the 5th team to win a series after being 0-2 down.
- India lost a home series after 4 years, first and only under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
Strengths and Weaknesses of both sides
India
- India’s biggest strength goes without saying. Their top three ,i.e, Rohit, Dhawan and Kohli have a combined 19 centuries against Australia. Rohit averages 61, Kohli 54 and Dhawan has an average of 42 against Australia.
- The pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, famously called as Kulcha has been one of the major reasons of India’s success since 2017. However, Kuldeep doesn’t enjoy a great deal of success against Australia. It is the only team against whom he averages in high 30s and has an economy over 6 (having played a certain number of games). In the absence of Hardik Pandya & Jadeja giving the batting cushion, India is certain not to play these two spinners together, at least in the first couple of matches.
- KL Rahul scored a 100 in his last series against West Indies when Dhawan was nursing a knee injury. Now since Dhawan is back, he is likely to get his spot back but India will be delighted to see an in-form Rahul ready to grab his opportunities.
- With no Hardik Pandya, Indian middle and lower middle order might struggle against quality Australian pacers. Shreyas Iyer has a ominous weakness against fast bowling. He has been dismissed 10 times in his career, all to fast bowlers. Looking at the brighter side, his impressive game against spin will keep him in and Rahul (as a possible number 4) out of the side.
Australia
- Australia is coming to this series with no ODI cricket since July when they last played in the World Cup semi-final against England. They’d an incredible summer at home where they played Test Cricket for a major part. It means they might take some time to get into the rhythm but you can never take them easy.
- In the absence of David Warner, Usman Khwaja had a great outing when the last time these two sides met. He had 4 50+ scores in 5 games. With the matches being in Mumbai, Rajkot and Bengaluru – all 3 surfaces being good for batting, David Warner won’t mind this challenge. His opening partner Aaron Finch will be relieved by Bhuvneshwar Kumar not playing the series. Bhuvi has dismissed Finch 4 times while has troubled Warner a lot in T20Is.
- Australia will be boosted by the inclusion of Mitchell Starc in their side. Saying that, the leading wicket taker of WC 2019 doesn’t have a great experience of playing white ball cricket in India. Also, India is the only team which played him well in the World Cup where he returned the figures of 1-74 in the solitary group game between these two sides.
- India will have to be wary of Pater Handscomb, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne who are good players of spin bowling and can help Australia create pressure in middle overs with strike rotation.
India vs Australia Dream11 Preview
India’s probable starting 11
Rohit Sharma
Shikhar Dhawan
Virat Kohli (C)
Shreyas Iyer
Rishabh Pant (WK)
Kedar Jadhav
Ravindra Jadeja
Mohammad Shami
Jasprit Bumrah
Navdeep Saini
Yuzvendra Chahal
Australia’s probable starting 11
Aaron Finch (C)
David Warner
Steve Smith
Marnus Labuschagne
Ashton Turner
Alex Carey (WK)
Ashton Agar
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Adam Zampa
Nathan Coulter-Nile
India Squad
Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia Squad
Aaron Finch (captain), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Head to Head
Overall
India : 50 wins
Australia : 77 wins
In last 10 Matches
India : 6 wins
Australia : 4 wins