With two back-to-back wins in the ‘super-eight’ stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, India are on top for almost a semi-final berth. Their last game of the second round of the tournament is against Australia, who have given India nightmares in the last year. The Aus vs Ind clash will be played on June 24 at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium in Gros Islet, St Lucia.
The Rohit Sharma-led side were in excellent touch in the group stage of the competition with wins over Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States of America, while their game in Florida against Canada was washed out due to persistent rain.
Before Ind vs Aus game, the 2007 champions of the tournament got the better of Afghanistan in Barbados, with some excellent bowling performances, as their batters too enjoyed the conditions with the bat in hand. They used the conditions pretty well, while the bowling led by Jasprit Bumrah showed their skill.
In their last game against Bangladesh in North Sound Antigua, India showed the right template for playing the T20 games. Everyone, from the top to bottom, kept on nailing the big shots, without any individual success, until Hardik Pandya enjoyed an unbeaten half-century, which will offer him more confidence in the Aus vs Ind contest.
The Australia side, they too was unbeaten throughout the tournament in the group stage, having blown away Oman, and Namibia side, besides showing their dominance over England and keeping their cool in a so much-discussed game against Scotland, which eventually helped the England side to get qualified. Everything was falling in their favor.
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Even in their first ‘Super Eight’ game against Bangladesh, the Mitchell Marsh-led side again showed how all-rounding powerful they have been in this format of late. They used the conditions quite well in Antigua for most of the game, before the rain came and just carried them over the line.
The craze was on their game against Afghanistan, before the Aus vs Ind game, and how dicey their performance was. First, they conceded a 100+ run opening stand, and kept on going with a very bad game plan. Pat Cummins became the first player in the history of the format to take two back-to-back T20I hat-tricks. Their batting didn’t click at all, as their defeat by 21 runs put the calculation in every note, going into the Aus vs Ind encounter.
The last five T20I for Aus vs Ind
In the last five T20I games, between these two teams, in the Aus vs Ind games, the Indian cricket team is ahead with four victories, while in 31 overall games in this format, India are way ahead with a 19-11 margin, with one game ending in no-result.
Journey For India and Australia
India:
Match 1: Beat Ireland by 8 wickets.
Match 2: Beat Pakistan by 6 runs.
Match 3: Beat the United States of America by 7 wickets.
Match 4: Match abandoned to Canada
Match 5: Beat Afghanistan by 47 runs.
Match 6: Beat Bangladesh by 50 runs.
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Australia:
Match 1: Beat Oman by 39 runs.
Match 2: Beat England by 36 runs.
Match 3: Beat Namibia by 9 wickets.
Match 4: Beat Scotland by 5 wickets.
Match 5: Beat Bangladesh by 28 runs (DLS)
Match 6: Lost to Afghanistan by 21 runs.
AUS vs IND Teams:
India
Ind Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk.), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav.
Australia
Aus Probable XI: Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh (c), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk.), Tim David, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa.