Will Jasprit Bumrah show his magic in the last T20?Image Credit source: PTI
The way the T20 series between India and Australia started, it did not seem that Team India would be close to capturing the series till the last match. After the first match which was washed out by rain, Team India had to face a crushing defeat in the second T20 and was constantly under the scanner. But the T20 World Champions made a strong comeback in the next two matches and took a 2-1 lead and are now close to winning the series in the last T20 to be held in Brisbane. To do this, captain Suryakumar Yadav and his team will have to settle old scores with Australia.
The five T20 match series will be decided in Brisbane on Saturday 8 November. In this match, which is going to be held at Gaba Stadium, the Australian team will enter on its own soil with the intention of avoiding the embarrassment of losing another series to India. Despite a strong victory in the second match, Mitchell Marsh’s team lagged behind in the series and is now close to defeat. But for him, this decisive match has come on a ground where defeating him proved to be a difficult task and even Team India had to face defeat in this attempt.
Need to defeat Australia in its own stronghold
If Australia has the best record on any one ground at home, it is Brisbane. Australia has played 8 T20 matches till date in Gabba and has won 7 of them. He has lost only one match and this defeat also came against West Indies 12 years ago in 2013. Not only this, the only match that Team India played here was against Australia in 2018 and in that the team lost by 4 runs by Duckworth-Lewis rule. In such a situation, Team India has a chance to avenge the old defeat from Australia through this match and by doing so, it will also win the series.
However, this is not going to be so easy because leg spinner Adam Zampa played an important role in the defeat that Team India suffered 7 years ago and this time too he is a part of the team and had taken 3 important wickets in the last match also. Apart from him, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell also made important contributions and both of them are also a part of this series. That means the risk is not less. But in the current Indian team, there are Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah who played in that match, who can be as effective again as they were then.
Focus on the performance of Gill-Surya and Bumrah
Lack of consistency in the top order performance has been a major concern for the Indian team. Especially the slow batting of Shubman Gill and the inability of captain Suryakumar Yadav to play big innings is most important in this. In such a situation, this match can be very important personally for both of them. At the same time, Tilak Verma and Jasprit Bumrah, who were ineffective so far in this series, would also like to make some impact in the decisive match. This series in particular has not been anything special for Bumrah and he has been able to take only 3 wickets in 3 innings. In such a situation, he has a good chance. Not only this, by taking one wicket, Bumrah will become only the second Indian bowler to take 100 T20 International wickets.
Talking about the playing-11, there is no hope that Team India will make any major changes. The series is at stake and in such a situation, what could be a better option than fielding only 11 players who have won two consecutive matches. In such a situation, the return of Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson and Harshit Rana seems difficult, while for Rinku Singh, like the entire series, the last match is also going to be spent on the bench.