India to take on Australia in third T20I in Guwahati
In Cricket, India will take on Australia in the third T20 International in Guwahati today. The match will start at 7 PM Indian Time. The Hosts are currently leading the five match series, 2-Nil. India won the first game by two wickets at Visakhapatnam and in the second T20 defeated Australia by 44 runs in Thiruvananthapuram.
Roughly around the time when India were toying with Australian bowlers in the death overs of a T20I in Trivandrum on Sunday, the average Indian cricket fan was engaged elsewhere. A bombshell of an IPL trade was in the works that comfortably dragged eyeballs away from the actual cricket action which, ironically enough, had some of the IPL regulars showing their readiness for a permanent step up.
It’s been an intriguing week, if you’re an Indian cricket fan. A World Cup trophy that looked destined to be India’s third in the 50-over format took a last-minute detour to become Australia’s sixth. A cynic would conclude that the big, juicy IPL development is like a distraction from the national team’s trip up on the big day, but the international cricket that has happened – in Trivandrum and Vizag – since that fateful Sunday is anything but that.
There is barely any time for India – and every other country not named Australia – to brood over their World Cup performance, for another is coming in less than seven months. Tuesday’s game will be India’s third out of just 11 they play in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup next June in the USA and West Indies.
Australia might still have a post-World Cup win glow about them but next year’s tournament holds a lot of value to them too. In 2021, they ended their World Cup drought in this format but failed to make the semis in the very next year. The 2024 event is thus, another chance to populate this section of their trophy cabinet that looks rather barren in comparison to the rest. But the start towards that mission has been rather shaky so far, with two defeats in two while both setting a target and chasing. They’ve of course only eased a couple of their World Cup regulars slowly back into action, while a few other stalwarts like Warner, Cummins, Starc, Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh have taken a well-deserved break.
They were still competitive enough to push a dominant Indian side deep in one of the two games, and will be eager to go a notch further and drag this series beyond Tuesday’s third fixture. For India, who are also without a few of their big names, the eyes must twinkle at the sight and thought of an early series sweep.
Squads:
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube
Australia Squad: Steven Smith, Matthew Short, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade(w/c), Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Tanveer Sangha, Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Travis Head, Aaron Hardie
