T20 World Cup 2024, AUS vs IND 51st Match, Super Eights, Group 1 Match Preview
Game details
Australia vs India
St Lucia, June 24, 10.30am local time
Big picture: Threat of rain in St Lucia
It’s Australia-India, then, and the stakes are as high as they can be. What more could a cricket fan ask for? However, there is one thing: the weather in St Lucia is not encouraging at all.
Form guide
Australia LWWWW (last five T20Is completed, most recent first)
India WWWWW
In light – Marsh and Arshdeep
Team news: Starc in or out?
Australia played an extra spinner against Afghanistan, bringing in Ashton Agar and leaving out Mitchell Starc. They can continue with that combination – Agar featured in their last one game in St Lucia, against Scotland – especially Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who are not too fond of facing the left arm in the powerplay, but given the nature of this tournament, will they continue to leave one of the most tried and tested game winners?
Australia (probable): 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc/Ashton Agar, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
It looks like India won’t be singing with their 3-3 bowling combination (with Hardik Pandya as one of their three seamers), but their left-arm spinners may come under pressure if Travis Head or David Warner hit the middle overs.
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
Tone and mood: The pace is forward, continuous
There is a high chance of rain in St Lucia, although forecasters are predicting showers until Monday morning when the weather will be around between 10am and 4pm.
Math and trivia
- India have won 3-2 against Australia in their T20 World Cup so far. However, they last clashed in this tournament in 2016.
- Virat Kohli (4103) and Rohit Sharma (4073) are separated by just 30 runs at the top of India’s run-scoring leaderboard in T20Is.
- If both are included, Agar and Arshdeep will play their 50 T20Is. Agar made his T20I debut in March 2016, while Arshdeep made his in July 2022. New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi (51) is the only player from the All-Member side to have played more T20Is than Arshdeep since his debut.
- Australia can find a way to spin Kohli and Rohit in the powerplay even if they leave Agar out. Offspinners have bowled well for them in the powerplay so far in this world cup, with Mohammad Nabi and Mahedi Hasan going through quiet overs. Kohli has hit nine from 12 balls with offspin in the powerplay so far, and Rohit nine from eight. Glenn Maxwell, then, could be a useful option.
Quotes
“We have a lot of faith in our team. We are a very good cricket team. Yes, tonight we had an off night but I think there is something good in that in 36 hours we are going again. It is a big game, it will be against India, obviously, and it is a game to win I think if you look back at the short history of this team, I know it brings out the best in our guys, so the guys are going to get up and do it.”
Australian captain Mitchell Marshafter the conquest of Afghanistan
“In T20s, I don’t believe you need to get fifties and hundreds. How you can put pressure on the opposition is the most important thing. All the batsmen were trying to do that. That’s how we want to play and encourage. To go forward, you have to understand the conditions as well, but we have a lot of experience in the team, and we support them to use that experience on the field.”
Indian captain Rohit Sharma in the team’s way by hitting
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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