India head to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) riding high on confidence for the second T20I against Australia here on Friday, buoyed by the influx of young talent and skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s return to form.
Frontline batsmen Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube arrived on the Australian shores after reinventing the art of T20 batting with their power-hitting, but the dearth of big runs from their captain's blade has been a sore point for the team, of late.
Entering the opener of the five-match series under the scanner, Suryakumar, however, bounced back to form with a 24-ball 39, which included a huge 125-metre six off Josh Hazlewood that will stay in memory for long.
However, the match in Canberra was abandoned with India dominantly placed at 97 for one after 9.4 overs, and both Suryakumar and Shubman Gill looking to decimate the Australian attack.
Rain is also forecast for Friday in Melbourne, but without worrying about what's beyond their control, India would want to pick up from where they left in the abandoned series opener.
Going into the second match, what must have pleased Indian fans was Suryakumar’s return to form as the team gears up for the World Cup with the high-risk, high-reward approach implemented by head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Gambhir wants his team to regularly go for totals in excess of 250, 260 and even if they end up getting bowled out for 120-130 in that process and lose a few matches, he would not mind.
India’s explosive batting in recent months is a clear sign that the batsmen have embraced Gambhir's philosophy months before the T20 World Cup gets underway in India and Sri Lanka, where the team will look to defend the title they had won in the Americas last summer.
India did not get to bowl in Canberra, but they have Jasprit Bumrah's class and Varun Chakravarthy's guile with the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel completing a potent attack which can also defend a small total should the batsmen not muster enough runs. They will, nevertheless, have their task cut out against big hitters Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head, who have troubled India in the past.
Australia’s T20 template is pretty similar to the one adopted by the Indian team with focus primarily on playing attacking cricket irrespective of the situation of the match. In men like Head, Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David and Josh Iglis, they have the arsenal to put up big totals or pull off tricky chases.
With frontline Australian pacer Micthell Starc retiring from T20Is and Pat Cummins recovering from an injury, the bowling looks a little lacking on experience. The onus is thus on Hazlewood to lead the attack that comprises Xavier Bartlett, Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Ellis, among others.
The match will start at 1:45 pm.
Also read: India off to flier, but rain plays spoilsport
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