AUS v IND, 1st T20I – Fantasy Cricket Tips

by Karthik Atchuta

Date: 4 Dec, 2020 – 01:40pm IST
Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra

_{Virat Kohli is currently ranked No.9 batsman in ICC T20I rankings (Pic Credit: Getty Images)}

AUS ODI Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, D Arcy Short, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Sean Abbott, Andrew Tye, Cameron Green, Daniel Sams, Marcus Stoinis

IND ODI Squad: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Shami

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Fantasy XI:

Batsmen: Virat Kohli (c), Aaron Finch, Steven Smith, Moises Henriques

WK Batsman: KL Rahul

All Rounders: Glenn Maxwell (vc), Hardik Pandya, Ashton Agar

Bowlers: Adam Zampa, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah

I am going with the highest T20I run getter Virat Kohli as my captain. The Indian captain has struck some form and can be banked on in either part of the innings.

On any other day I would have dropped out Steve Smith in T20Is – but the Aussie International is in terrific form in the home series. He scored a 80* the last time a T20I was played at Manuka Oval.

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The other batsman in my list are Aaron Finch and Moises Henriques – being a flat wicket and being a 20 over match I had to ignore the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey in the fantasy XI. Moises purely because he can give points with bat and ball.

All rounders wise am going with Hardik Pandya and Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell is my vice captain for the current red hot form he is in. He could also be brought in to bowl to combat Shikhar Dhawan if he gets going. Ashton Agar joins Maxwell and Pandya – He is one of the top ranked all rounders in ICC Rankings currently and he has been a very crucial part of Aussie results recently.

My bowling department is in with Jasprit Bumrah and T Natarajan who play a specialist role in the shorter version of the game. The 3rd bowler was more of a fitting in with the budget- hence I am going Sean Abbott over Adam Zampa (who was just 0.5 points higher than Abbott but just cost me overall team budget). Deepak Chahar is an option to consider as Aaron Finch might have some problems against the early swing he provides.

X-factors for me will be D’Arcy Short and Moises Henriques. Given a chance they are included in playing XIs I might consider bringing at least one of them in the team. If D’Arcy doesn’t make the cut Aussies might open with Matthew Wade who had been incredibly good in the role for Hobart Hurricanes in BBL.

Probable XIs:

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade/ D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc/AJ Tye, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa

India: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar/Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal/Ravindra Jadeja, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah