Positive India look forward to dominating mighty Australia in the T20 format

While Australia has started the ODI series with two wins, India bounced back and registered a convincing win in the third ODI as well as dominated the one-off Pink-ball Test. However, trailing by 4-6 in the multi format series, they need to win all three T20I games to win the series as well and this is going to be a challenge for them as well.

As far as India's squad is concerned, captain Harmanpreet Kaur will return after getting recovered from his thumb injury. She wasn't a part of the ODI series as well as the Test. While her return will strengthen the team in the middle order, her form and inconsistency can trouble the team going forward.

While their openers – Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma both are in sublime form, their middle order is yet to perform their best. However, the selection of Jemimah Rodrigues too has become uncertain with Yastika Bhatia taking her place in the ODI series. She has done quite well. Moreover, Harleen Deol has started playing at No.3 in the shortest format. On the other hand, Rodrigues has had a successful stint in The Hundred. It will be interesting to see if she manages to get a chance.

While Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh and Pooja Vastrakar are likely to fill the lower order, Sneh Rana's inclusion will be helpful, considering her ability to bat and score quickly alongside her spin. But, they have to think about their pace attack which is rather inexperienced.

In Jhulan Goswami's absence, Shikha Pandey spearheads the pace attack but she didn't feature in any of the games in this series. On the other hand, with her debut, Meghna Singh has impressed everyone with her swing throughout the series as well. Whether she will get a chance or not is yet to be decided, Kaur shared that they will play with their best XI.

She said in the pre-match media interaction: "We need to win all three to win the series, and we want to go all out. We will go with our best talent because we want to win this series at any cost."

As far as the Australian team is concerned, they won't get the service of Rachael Haynes in the batting and Meghan Schutt and Jess Jonassen in the bowling department. But, they have a handful of quality youngsters.

While the veteran all-rounder Ellyse Perry has found her form during the Test, Tayla Vlaeminck, Hannah Darlington and Darcie Brown and Stella Campbell are there to trouble the opponents with their pace. Meanwhile, Georgia Redmayne or Tahlia McGrath will get the chance in the middle-order whereas Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham will help Ashleigh Gardner in the spin department.

While India will try to maintain their winning momentum from the ODI, mighty Aussies won't leave them easily. It will be interesting to see which team will have the last laugh.

Teams

Australia: Meg Lanning (c), Darcie Brown, Maitlan Brown, Stella Campbell, Nicola Carey, Hannah Darlington, Ashleigh Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Tahlia McGrath, Sophie Molineux, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Georgia Redmayne, Molly Strano, Annabel Sutherland, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham.

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Yastika Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Meghna Singh, Pooja Vastrakar, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Richa Ghosh (wk), Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh Thakur