India and Australia are set to lock horns in Visakhapatnam to get the five-match T20I series underway on Thursday (November 23). Interestingly, the two teams faced each other at the same venue in the shortest format exactly four years and nine months ago when Australia had chased down 127 runs with three wickets in hand in the last-ball thriller.
That remains the only loss for India in the T20Is at the venue as the men in blue emerged victorious against Sri Lanka and South Africa here in 2016 and 2022 respectively. Team India has played overall three T20Is in Vizag winning two and losing one. They last played here in June 2022 against the Proteas when Ruturaj Gaikwad slammed 57 runs and Ishan Kishan also impressed with a 54-run knock.
On the back of their fifties, India posted 179 runs on the board and then bundled out South Africa for 131 runs winning the match by 48 runs. Yuzvendra Chahal picked up three wickets for just 20 runs to win the player of the match award. Surprisingly, he is not part of the squad for the upcoming series against the Aussies.
The pitch in Visakhapatnam is known to assist the spinners a lot as India had skittled Sri Lanka for just 82 runs in 2016. Spinners had picked up seven wickets for the home with Ravi Ashwin returning with figures of 4/8 in his four overs.
India's performance in T20Is in Visakhapatnam
Played: 3; Won: 2; Lost: 1
India squad for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Jitesh Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
