Team India will face Australia, within four days after the World Cup final, in the first of the five-match T20I series starting from November 23 (Thursday) in Vizag. India have picked only three players from the World Cup squad for this series and they are - Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Prasidh Krishna.
Whle Surya is set to become India's 9th T20I captain since January 2021, Prasidh Krishna is also set to take up the fast bowling duties having warmed the bench in the World Cup since replacing Hardik Pandya. It remains to be seen if Ishan Kishan gets an opportunity as Jitesh Sharma is also in the squad as the wicketkeeper. Moreover, Kishan's batting form in the shortest format is not great either having scored his last fifty in T20Is 17 innings ago.
Even if he makes it to the playing XI, Kishan is likely to bat at three thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal's quick emergence at the top of the order. The latter has smashed 248 runs in just 8 innings in T20Is at a strike-rate of 167.57 and also has a century to his name already. With senior players expected to return, Kishan will be under pressure to make opportunities if he plays in the first-choice playing XI.
The southpaw has registered five single-digit scores in the format this year in eight outings and will have to step up as soon as possible. As of now, it seems as if Kishan will make it to the XI but will bat at first drop with Jaiswal opening with vice-captain Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Probable Playing XIs:
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan
Australia: Matthew Short, Travis Head, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade (c, wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Glenn Maxwell/Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa/Tanveer Sangha, Jason Behrendorff
