IND vs AUS: Team India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, won the fourth T20I against Australia in Raipur, ensuring that India clinched the five-match T20I series against the Men in Yellow. With the series already won, the Men in Blue would like to finish it on a high note. India presently holds a 3-1 series advantage. The fifth and final match of this series will be played tomorrow at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy Stadium. The match will start at its usual start time of 7:00 PM IST / 1:30 PM GMT. The previous match was the first in the series in which a total of 200+ runs was not set. This is likely to change at Chinnaswamy Stadium.
In the preceding game, the Men in Blue batted well, with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and debutant Jitesh Sharma helping India reach a respectable total of 174 runs. Suryakumar and Shreyas failed to get going in the previous match, and while SKY has been good with the bat in the series, scoring 139 runs in four matches, the final match of this series will be crucial for Shreyas, who needs to get some runs under his belt before the start of the South African tour. He is also one of three players, along with Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar, who have been named in the squads for all three formats of the game for the South African Tour.
In terms of bowling, India’s spin pair of Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel have been superb. While Bishnoi took one wicket and conceded only 17 runs, his teammate at the other end, Axar Patel, was named Man of the Match with figures of 3/16 to his name. Ravi Bishnoi is also the highest wicket taker in this series with seven scalps. Deepak Chahar who returned to the Indian team after a long injury layoff managed to take 2 wickets but was quite expensive as he gave away 44 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Mukesh Kumar didn’t pick any wickets while Avesh Khan finished the game with figures of 1/33.
Talking about alterations, the Men in Blue, having already won the series, may wish to give Washington Sundar a chance to play in the place of Axar Patel. Sundar’s last T20I encounter was against Afghanistan in the Asian Games final, and he will be aiming to get some playing time and wickets under his belt before the South African tour begins. The 24-year-old is a member of India’s T20I team against South Africa. Shivam Dube is yet to appear in a match in this series and might fill in for Rinku Singh to give the 26-year-old some rest before Team India’s trip to South Africa.
The Men in Yellow, on the other hand, might make a single change, with Nathan Ellis or Kane Richardson coming in place of Tanveer Sangha, as the ground in Bangalore is not kind to the spinners.
Expected Playing 11 of both the teams
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Australia: Travis Head, Josh Philippe, Aaron Hardie, Ben Mcdermott, Matthew Short, Tim David, Matthew Wade (C and WK), Chris Green, Jason Behrendorff, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis / Kane Richardson.
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