India returns to the cricket field after a short break and the 'Men in Blue' will face off against Australia in the first T20I in Visakhapatnam on February 24.
When and where to watch the match on TV, online
The 1st T20I between India and Australia will start at 7 pm local time and 2:30 pm BST.
Star Sports 1 & HD1 (English) and Star Sports 3 & HD3 (Hindi) will provide live television coverage of the match. The live stream will be available on Hotstar.
India vs Australia 1st T20 preview
India's final assignment before the World Cup is upon us and Virat Kohli is back leading the side after the break he took in the latter half of the series against New Zealand.
India narrowly lost the T20 series against New Zealand, bringing an end to their undefeated run in ten consecutive bilateral meets. Dinesh Karthik was the hero and the villain of the match as he brought India close pulling off another miracle in the same ilk as the Nidahas Trophy final. But in the final over, he refused a single to Krunal Pandya who was also hitting the ball quite. He backed himself to score 14 off 3 balls but failed as India fell short by just 4 runs in the end.
He has since been left out of the ODI squad which will play against Australia following the T20 series. But Karthik forms an integral cog in the Indian T20 wheel and is expected to be one of the three wicketkeeper-batsmen in the starting XI. MS Dhoni will obviously don the gloves and Rishabh Pant is also expected to make it in the first team.
In the bowling department, Jasprit Bumrah is back but Kuldeep Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have been given a rest. In the absence of the aforementioned regulars, the likes of Krunal Pandya and either Siddharth Kaul or Umesh Yadav will get game time.
As for Australia, skipper Aaron Finch will be hoping his players can deal with India's wrist spin threat that will be posed by the guile of Yuzvendra Chahal. Glenn Maxwell will be especially eager to redeem himself against the leg spinner. He, along with fellow all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, will be charged with applying the finishing touches to the Aussie innings as well as bowl a minimum of 4 overs.
Pat Cummins also makes a return to the limited-overs fold and he will be accompanied by Jhye Richardson and Nathan Coulter-Nile in the pace bowling department. Richardson made a real name for himself with impressive performances in the ODI series against India and will hope to further stake his claim on the flight to England in May for the World Cup.
Read: Playing XIs and pitch report...
Global TV listings
| Subcontinent | Star Sports |
| UK | BT Sport (BT Sport 1 HD) |
| Australia | Fox Sports, Seven Network |
| South Africa | SuperSport |
| Canada | ATN Cricket Plus (Asian Television Network), CBN |
| USA | Willow TV |
| Caribbean | ESPN Caribbean |
| Bangladesh | Gazi TV (GTV) |
