AUS v IND, 2nd T20I – Fantasy Cricket Tips

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by Karthik Atchuta

Date: 6 Dec, 2020 – 01:40pm IST
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney

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, Nathan Lyon, 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

Fantasy XI:

Batsmen: Virat Kohli (c), Aaron Finch, Steven Smith, Moises Henriques, D’Arcy Short

WK Batsman: KL Rahul (vc)

All Rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Hardik Pandya

Bowlers: Yuzvendra Chahal, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah

Captain and Vice Captain:
Captain Virat has 2 half centuries in 2 T20I innings played at Sydney Cricket Ground. Despite a single digit score in the first match, I am backing him as a captain of my fantasy ship once again.

KL Rahul has been a prolific T20 International batsman and his ICC batting ranking of No.4 tells the story. He is very close to edge past Aaron Finch to become the Top 3 batsmen in the shorter format. Am going with Indian vice captain as my vice captain as well.

Batsmen:
The other batsman in my list are Aaron Finch, D’Arcy Short and Moises Henriques. Finch if fit to play the match is the kind of batsman who spends time at the crease – so irrespective of strike rate you are bound to get some points. Short and Henriques dual role with bat and ball is invaluable for the scoring. If he is not available you can go for Shikhar Dhawan or Deepak Chahar. Having said that Sanju Samson looked in great touch the other day.

All rounder:
All rounders wise am going with Hardik Pandya and Glenn Maxwell once again. Maxwell might have looked so out of touch all so suddenly once the T20I series began – but it could be that early shaky starts all batsmen face. Coming of from an absolutely wonderful ODI series, it won’t be surprising if he would go on to pull off one of those beast innings once again. With Ravindra Jadeja gone, the onus is on Hardik Pandya to stay on and provide the much important slog Team India needs – a definite pick in my XI for points and bonus points purposes.

Bowlers:
My bowling department is India heavy given the specialist roles each bowler carries in the T20 format. The idea might look scary but Team India doesn’t have all rounders who bowl while you can expect some one from Maxwell, Henriques and Short (all in the fantasy XI) to have a go with the ball at Sydney. Given any of the team members miss out – I am so going for Deepak Chahar as my 4th bowling option.

X-factors for me will be D’Arcy Short and Moises Henriques. Their skill with both bat and ball can prove crucial and defining to the end count.

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

India: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Sanju Samson, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, T Natarajan, Jasprit Bumrah