Fouth T20I: India to face Australia in Raipur today
India and Australia will lock horns tomorrow in the 4th T20 International of the five-match series at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur.
India are currently leading the series with 2-1.The Men In Blue are expected to make at least one change in their Playing 11, given Shreyas Iyer will join the squad as vice-captain.
How many runs are truly enough? That’s a question that India will be looking to definitively answer in this fourth T20I against Australia in Raipur. If they had the best of conditions to pull off their highest T20I chase in Visakhapatnam, their highest-ever T20I total against Australia in Thiruvananthapuram gave them more than enough buffer. It was in Guwahati that even a total of 222 wasn’t enough, thanks to the dewy conditions in which Glenn Maxwell put India’s death bowlers to the sword and helped Australia get on the board in the series.
It’s been a series of flat pitches and high scores, so India won’t be too overly concerned about their death bowling. Ruturaj, speaking after the third T20I, thought as much and underlined how “even 13-14 runs an over” is attainable in these conditions and the best thing to do is “accept that and move on”. That said, Prasidh Krishna’s form would be in focus especially with only eight more T20Is to go before the World Cup next year. The tall pacer has returned figures of 1/50, 3/41 and 0/68 in this series, the latest being the worst-ever figures by an Indian in T20Is.
For Australia, this match would be as much about leveling the series as it’ll be about adjusting to yet another squad at their disposal. Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Steve Smith and Adam Zampa have all returned home after a victorious World Cup campaign, with Travis Head being the only exception. Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Green, Ben McDermott and Josh Philippe have replaced them in the squad and would be looking forward to some game time, not in the least because there’s an IPL Auction round the corner.
