Australia Revamps Squad Mid-India T20I Series
Australia's T20I team underwent significant modifications for the final three matches against India. Their World Cup-winning squad saw six players released.
Six of Australia's seven World Cup-winning players have been left off of the current five-match Twenty20 International series against India. According to CricketAustralia.com.au, following Tuesday's third Twenty20 International at Guwahati, Steve Smith, Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, and Sean Abbott will return home on Wednesday.
The choice was made to allow players who have been in India for more than two months to take a break. Before the World Cup, most of these players were included in Australia's ODI team, which competed against India in a three-match series.
Australia Revamps Squad Mid-India T20I Series
Travis Head is the only player from Australia's World Cup-winning team who will be back for the remainder of this T20I series. Head has not yet appeared in this series despite being named Player of the Match in the World Cup final.
Starting with the third T20I itself, the left-handed opening batsman is scheduled to open the batting.
Ben McDermott, a powerful hitter, and wicketkeeper-batter Josh Phillippe have already trained with the Guwahati group and are eligible for selection as replacements in the T20I squad.
In advance of the fourth Twenty20 International in Raipur on Wednesday, Ben Dwarshuis and off-spinner Chris Green are probably going to be included in the team.
The Australian team management thought they needed to include a specialist finger spinner in their lineup, therefore Green is all set to debut in the fourth Twenty20 International.
Australia's performance in the last two matches
Australia are behind 0-2 in the series after losing the opening two games to an excellent Indian batting squad. The only member of Australia's World Cup-winning team that participated in both T20Is was Smith. Both Abbott and Stoinis, who were included in the World Cup team but did not play much in the starting lineup, participated in both games.
On their comeback for the second Twenty20 International, Maxwell and Zampa were unable to significantly alter Australia's results.
David Warner was removed from the Twenty20 Indian team prior to the start of the series.
In the meanwhile, India's team remains unchanged for the third game. However, Shreyas Iyer will be available for selection starting with the following game. He will also succeed Ruturaj Gaikwad as the team's vice-captain. The team will still be led by Suryakumar Yadav while Hardik Pandya is out.
India vs Australia SQUAD
Australia: Matthew Wade (c), Jason Behrendorff, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Chris Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Kane Richardson
India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer
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