The T20 series between India and Australia continues on Tuesday when the two teams head to Guwahati for the third match of the scheduled five, which is the first chance for the home side to claim the overall spoils.
India have won the opening two matches of the series and a win here will see them claim it with two matches to spare. Australia are visibly struggling for motivation after their ODI World Cup win but they’re a proud side and won’t want to go down a third time.
India
There were one or two eyebrows raised when India named their squad for this series when you consider that there isn’t a huge amount of matches to come before the T20 World Cup next June but the way this second string outfit have played makes you wonder how many will be heading to the Caribbean for the tournament in seven months. They have three more matches to continue to impress and further secure their spot in the thinking for that World Cup.
The impressive thing for the Indians so far in this series is the power and depth that they have with the bat. They have scored 200 in both matches and done it with the minimum of fuss. They had a bit of a wobble with the winning line in sight in the opening game but they ploughed on regardless in the second one. They would probably want to show a little more with the ball but this series has been played on fantastic wickets so far.
Australia
I don’t think we can be too critical of Australia in this series so far. This was always going to be a tough ask for them once they won the World Cup last week. To be fair, even if they hadn’t won the World Cup they would have been eyeing up the plane home after the better part of two months away in India. This series is the last thing they would have wanted but they have given both matches so far a good go but haven’t quite been good enough.
The big problem for Australia in this series so far has been their bowling. Much like the Indian bowling though, it comes with the caveat that the opening two matches have been played on beautiful batting wickets and the dew factor isn’t going to help the bowlers either. The positive has been the batting where Steve Smith is looking good as an opener and they have shown they have firepower at the back end of the innings too.
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Team News
India haven’t changed anything in the series to date and while they have players waiting in the wings who can do a job for them the consensus appears to be that they will get the series won before they switch things up.
Australia left Jason Behrendorff out of the last game but you’ve got to think he will return after the attack all went around the park. Sean Abbott hasn’t had the best series so far so he could make way. Steve Smith is expected to leave after this game.
Betting
The theme of the series so far has been the number of sixes that have been hit and I don’t see anything changing in that regard for this one. There is expected to be a lot of dew for this match so the second innings in particular is going to favour the batters but when you consider in the last T20I match on this ground there were over 450 runs it would be daft to think that we are going to get anything but a high scoring game here.
The sixes line for this one looks a little on the high side at 15.5 but we have had 20 and 25 sixes in the series so all of a sudden it doesn’t look too high. It looks even less the case when you consider that in that T20I here last year there were 25 sixes. Then you look at the power hitters on show here and the fact that we have second string bowlers on show and that line really does begin to look a par one. I’m happy for it to be covered, especially in this day and age.
Tips
Back Over 15.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
