India will look to level the three-match series as they take on Australia in the second T20I at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 23, Friday.
When does the match start and how to watch it live
The 2nd T20I between Australia and India will start at 5:50 pm local time, 1:20 pm IST and 8:50 am BST.
Sony Six and Sony Ten 3 will provide live television coverage of the match in India, in English and Hindi, respectively. The live stream of the match will be available on Sony Liv and Jio TV.
Australia vs India preview
Having lost the first game by 4 runs in a stiff run chase, India will be keen to make amends in the second T20I in order to keep the series alive going into Sydney on Sunday.
Coming into the series, India was dubbed as massive favourites given their form and Australia's dismal run of late. But all of that changed when the two sides met at the Gabba as Australia pulled off a thrilling last over victory.
Adam Zampa was the surprising star of the show on Wednesday, churning out a magical spell of leg spin bowling on a wet wicket wherein he scalped KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. Zampa's success might tempt Kohli to field Yuzvendra Chahal – in place of the Khaleel Ahmed – although that move is likely to throw up complications in the team combination given India does not possess a fast bowling all-rounder in their ranks.
Krunall Pandya's contributions too came into question after the last game but it is unlikely the team management will take any drastic calls on the all-rounder after just one game in alien conditions.
Time to drop Rahul?
India's persistence with Rahul doesn't seem to be paying off as consistently as the team would like. Fitting the Karnataka lad into the batting order has also taken a hit on the team best batsman, Kohli's form because he has had to drop a position to number 4.
Kohli demoting himself to the batting order has coincided with a striking dip in his T20 form and from over 100, he now averages 21 in 2018.
It is well understood that Kohli's game is more suited to building an innings with quick running before he can take off but batting lower than number 3 doesn't allow him that luxury in T20 cricket.
Hence a strong case can be made to either drop Rahul and bring in someone like Manish Pandey or Shreyas Iyer in his place or exchange his batting position with Kohli's.
Australia, on their part, will not tinker with a winning combination and expect similar fireworks from their big-hitters.
Probable XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Rishabh Pant(WK), Dinesh Karthik, Krunall Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed
Australia: Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Chris Lynn, Darcy Short, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott, Alex Carey (WK), Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake, Adam Zampa
Pitch and Conditions
India will not be too happy with the weather forecast in Melbourne as rain is once again expected to play a part in the match.
The pitch at Melbourne will stay hard and offer good bounce for the duration of the 40 overs. The long boundaries mean that the spinners will have enough motivation to toss the ball up and the fast bowlers may once again be bowling a lot of slower balls.
Global TV listings
- Australia: Fox Sports
- UK: Sky Sports Cricket
- South Africa: SuperSport
- USA: Willow TV
- Canada: ATN Cricket Plus (Asian Television Network)
- Bangladesh: Gazi TV (GTV)
