By IANS
Melbourne : World champions India go into Friday’s one-off Twenty20 International against Australia here with confidence as they have beaten their opponents on both occasions they have clashed in the slam-bang version of cricket.
India, who won the World Championship in September in South Africa, may have lost the just-concluded Test series to Australia 1-2, but when it comes to 20-over-per-side matches they seem to be a better side.
India have defeated Australia in both matches the teams have played so far, including once in the World Championship. They have the second best winning percent (66.67) after Pakistan (72.73) in all matches played till date.
Even in the four-Test series, captain Anil Kumble’s India gave a tough fight to Ricky Ponting’s side. Had it not been for some umpiring mistakes, India could well have drawn the series 2-2.
In Twenty20 cricket, India are expected to throw a tougher challenge to the hosts. They have some extremely talented youngsters in Gautam Gambhir, their most successful batsman with 290 runs in eight matches, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, the Man of the Match in the World Championship final against Pakistan, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina.
Add these bubbly youngsters to the experience of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and India get a formidable, never-say-die bunch that has the capability to beat any side in the world.
With these youngsters refusing to be cowed down by the world one-day champions Australia or other teams, as witnessed in the World Cup Championship, India have a bright future ahead.
Significantly, India won the title without Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. Even though Tendulkar is in the squad now, he does not look like an automatic starter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The pressure will be on Australia to not just reduce the 2-0 overall deficit in their Twenty20 clashes with India, but also to prove that their Test series win was not achieve entirely on the basis of umpires’ mistakes.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicket-keeper), Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Suresh Raina, Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth
Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Adam Gilchrist (wicket-keeper), Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Adam Voges, James Hopes, Brett Lee, Ashley Noffke, Nathan Bracken and Ben Hilfenhaus