The limited overs tour of India concludes for Australia with three T20 matches before their focus turns to the main event of the winter. Having been somewhat humiliated in the ODIs, Australia are likely to want to extract some revenge while India will be looking to show that they have what it takes in this format of the game.
Schedule
1st T20: Oct 7 at Ranchi
2nd T20: Oct 10 at Guwahati
3rd T20: Oct 13 at Hyderabad
India
West Indies remain the only side who have beaten India in a series in T20 over the past two years but despite that this is starting to become the format that Virat Kohli’s men are least proficient at. I would suggest that is because of their strength in the other disciplines but whether it is or it isn’t they will be out to prove their worth.
In theory they should be very good in this format because they have a deep and aggressive batting line up and we’ve seen in the recent past that their bowling, especially at the death, is becoming much stronger. They will be looking to keep up their good record against sides other than West Indies here.
Australia
This will be just the fourth bilateral series of more than one match that Australia have played in T20 in almost three years which pretty much sums up how they feel about the format. A lot of the time they play it they schedule it with other things and don’t play their strongest side and that is often reflected when they go to tournaments.
They should be good at this format when you consider their dynamic top order and the pace they have in their bowling attack so the fact that they are not can only be down to their mental approach and how seriously they take it. Judging by their squad for this series they mean business this week and it will be interesting to see how they go as a result.
Head to Head
These two sides have met in five previous series in the T20 format. Australia have won just one of them and they have drawn one with India winning three. India won the latest one in Australia last winter by three matches to nil.
India’s dominance against Australia is reflected in the match results where they hold a 9-4 lead from the 13 meetings they have had. India have won the last six T20s against Australia which bodes well for them.
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Betting
This series feels like it has arrived at a time where the focus for both sides could be heading elsewhere so I don’t really want to go too mad on it from an outright point of view as there could be plenty of chopping and changing going on.
I do like one bet though which comes in the top Australia series batsman market where Aaron Finch looks a tasty price at 3/1. He is a very good player in this format and his record in the IPL backs that up. Although he missed the first two ODIs, he was the top scorer in the series for Australia so his form is strong. Dave Warner needs to be respected on his IPL record alone but only Virat Kohli and Joe Root have a higher T20I average than Finch and I’ll take that average to play out here.
Tips
Back A.Finch Top Australia Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with William Hill
Back him here:
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