India hope to pose bigger challenge to Australia in T20Is

They brushed aside India in the ODIs 2-1, but hosts Australia are bracing for a stiffer challenge in the five T20I series starting Wednesday in Canberra. India are ranked No 1 in T20Is, are defending World Cup champions and most recently won the T20 Asia Cup in the UAE, and truly, under Suryakumar Yadav, this group of cricketers is one of the best going around.

Mitchell Marsh’s Australian team is on a roll of its own, having lost just one of 11 T20Is post a group stage exit from last year’s World Cup. In 2025, Australia have won series over West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand and now face the top-ranked team, who boast the top-ranked batsman in Abhishek Sharma, top-ranked bowler in Varun Chakravarthy, as well as Jasprit Bumrah who was rested for the ODI leg of India’s tour.

Dating back to September 2022, India have won seven of eight T20Is against Australia. Under SKY, a more aggressive and riskier brand of cricket has reaped dividends and India have not lost a series during this time. However, this is the first time that SKY will be leading the team in Australia, where the challenges are different.

Abhishek, who possesses a strike-rate of 214.7 in the Powerplay overs since the start of the year, has not played in Australia yet. Ditto for Tilak Varma, the hero of the Asia Cup final. Shubman Gill is coming off three failures in the T20Is and has not played a T20I in Australia. Suryakumar’s only experience in the country came during the 2022 T20 World Cup, where he averaged 59.75 and scored at a strike-rate of 189.68 from six matches.

India will be glad to have Bumrah back against an Australia batting lineup that has collectively scored at 10.1 run per over in T20Is this year. Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh should form the new-ball pair, with Harshit Rana the third quick. In Hardik Pandya’s absence, as always, the team will struggle to find the right balance and this could mean sacrificing Kuldeep Yadav in favour of two seam-bowling allrounders in Shivam Dube and Nitish Reddy, who might have to combine for four overs.

This is, like in the ODIs, not a full strength Australian team. Adam Zampa has withdrawn on paternity leave, with head coach Andrew McDonald confirming on Monday that Australia’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is was out for the whole series. In Zampa’s absence, legspinner Tanveer Sangha has been recalled to join Matthew Kuhnemann as the main tweakers.

The selectors will rotate Australia’s pacers across these five T20Is, with Josh Hazlewood available for the first two games and Sean Abbott for the first three. Ben Dwarshius, on the mend from injury, will join the squad for last three games.

Josh Inglis looks set to return to wicketkeeping duties after missing the ODIs. Glenn Maxwell will also be back for the latter part of the series, while the pair of Marcus Stoinis and Tim David are available for all five fixtures.

India likely best XI: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Australia likely best XI: 1 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Matthew Short, 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Tim David, 6 Mitchell Owen, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Sean Abbott, 10  Josh Hazlewood, 11 Matthew Kuhnemann