Men in Blues will look to ride support from the crowd as they aim a whitewash in the T20I series against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground for the third and final match of the series on Tuesday. This match is also a noteworthy moment for the host as a nation in their fight against the novel coronavirus. It’ll be the first time a stadium in the country will be hosting a 100 per cent capacity crowd and the tickets have been selling at a rapid speed ever since the new protocols of freedom were declared recently.
This is a great chance for India to finish a second T20I series whitewash over Australia in their land after the 3-0 result MS Dhoni’s army got back in 2016 when they toured the Kangaroo land only for two limited-overs series.
India sealed the ongoing series on Sunday when they won the second game by six wickets while they had won the first T20I by 11 runs at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. Both the teams have been preserving their top pacers in the limited-overs series ahead of the four-Test series starting on December 17.
The Indian team management decided to rest both Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami for Sunday’s game while Australia rested Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
India’s batting looks far superior as unlike Australia all their top limited-overs batsmen are available. The hosts, who were already missing David Warner who is down with a groin injury, missed skipper Aaron Finch in the second T20I. Matthew Wade had to step in to lead Australia and open the innings in his place at the SCG on Sunday.
PROBABLE XI
India: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Australia: Matthew Wade (c & wk), D’Arcy Short/Alex Carey, Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Daniel Sams, Andrew Tye, Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa.