Not often does a bilateral T20 series generate the hype like the one beginning on Wednesday between India and Australia. In the space of 11 days, the two teams, currently enjoying the cold clime of Canberra, will cross the Bass Strait twice, shuttle between Melbourne, Gold Coast and Brisbane – which reinforces how almost every Australian state wants to have a share of the Indian cricket pie.
For starters, this isn’t doesn’t have the making of a random contextless bilateral series that will be forgotten by the time the fifth and final T20 is done and dusted in Brisbane. At Canberra, if Ravi Shastri is at the toss, one can expect him to throw the intro on these lines: On the blue corner is India, the No 1 T20I side and the reigning World Champions. In the Green corner with the Indigenous artwork decorating the shoulders is Australia, the No 2 T20I side. In essence, this is the fight between the top ranked teams.
Since winning the T20 World Cup, India have only grown from strength to strength, with their recent success in the Asia Cup being a reminder of how good they are. In 27 matches since that Barbados afternoon, India have won a staggering 22 matches, losing just three and two ending in a tie to have win-loss ratio of 7.333.
But guess what? In the same period, Australia have won 16 of the 19 matches they have played, losing just two and have a win-loss ratio of 8.000. While India’s high-risk approach in the batting led by Abhishek Sharma has been on everyone’s attention, Australia have been no-less. In fact, they have been scoring at a higher rate than India (10.07 to 9.69) per over. And with the ball, India have been the most lethal ones, averaging 17.09 per wicket and conceding just 7.65 per over to Australia’s 19.38 and 8.62.
And for the first time since the last T20 World Cup, the upcoming five-match series will provide a fair indication of where India stands ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup. In the time that India have been flexing their muscles in the format, Australia have transformed into a giant. From a batting unit that has firepower from top to bottom, wrist-spinners who can make a difference and pacers who can take conditions out of equations, they have it all under their new captain Mitchell Marsh.
While Travis Head continues to stay at the top to provide electric starts, after David Warner hung up his boots, the one who has taken the responsibility to infuse power at the top is Marsh. Nicknamed the ‘Bison’, Marsh has shown even in the IPL how with sheer brutality he can provide rapid starts. With Head, there is always an element of unpredictability and combined with Marsh, they have gone about providing the sort of starts that can kill games in the powerplay. The Aussies have averaged 61 runs in the powerplay, going at a strike rate of 169.97, the highest it’s ever been in a single calendar year.
“When you’ve got the power that we’ve got behind us, we’ve got to get a move on,” Head told cricket.com.au. “You don’t want to be chewing up balls up at the start when you’ve got (Tim) David, (Marcus) Stoinis, (Josh) Inglis, (Cameron) Green and (Glenn) Maxwell behind you. It’s huge power,” Head who opens alongside Abhishek for Sunrisers Hyderabad, said.