AUS v IND, 3rd T20I – Fantasy Cricket Tips

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by Karthik Atchuta

Date: 8 Dec, 2020 – 09:30am IST
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney

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

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), Shikhar Dhawan, Steven Smith

WK Batsman: KL Rahul (vc), Matthew Wade

All Rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Hardik Pandya, Moises Henriques

Bowlers: Adam Zampa, T Natarajan, Deepak Chahar

Captain and Vice Captain:
Captain Virat has 2 back to back half centuries in 2 T20I innings played at Sydney Cricket Ground followed by a good looking 40 in the last match. I am pushing him for the captain spot once again.

KL Rahul has been a prolific T20 International batsman and his ICC batting ranking of No.4 tells the story. I am once again going with Indian vice captain as my vice captain as well.

Batsmen:
The other batsman in my list are Steve Smith and Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan has a good run at SCG – while Steve Smith’s form with the bat makes it too hard for us to ignore him in our XI.

All rounder:
All rounders wise am going with Hardik Pandya, Moises Henriques and Glenn Maxwell. Hardik Pandya’s last stint in the tour unless the team wants to extend his run to Test cricket – hence he would look to go out with a bang. Glenn Maxwell might bowl an odd over to the left handed Dhawan and his form with the bat is cracking. With Finch gone, Henriques domestic experience as captain comes in handy. Points with both bat and ball is an admirable feature of Moises being in our Fantasy XI.

Bowlers:
With T20 series secured – India will continue to rest Bumrah and Shami – Hence, I am going with the ever reliable T Natarajan once again – along with Adam Zampa and Deepak Chahar. It was a tussle between Chahar and Shardul Thakur, but I felt the swing bowling Chahar would want to make an impression with the ball before bowing out.

X-factors for me will be Matthew Wade and Moises Henriques. Wade’s attacking display of batting was a delight to watch. They could be the deciding factor for the final tally differentiating us from other teams.

Probable XIs:
Australia: Matthew Wade (c/wk), D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Daniel Sams, Andrew Tye, Mitchell Swepson, 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