India and Australia are all set to face each other in the first T20I of the five-match series in Vizag today (November 23). As expected, India have named a young side with major senior players resting after the World Cup. With Hardik Pandya injured, Suryakyumar Yadav is set to make his captaincy debut and will eye quite a few records in this series.
While the man is on the cusp of becoming the joint-fastest or the fastest Indian to complete 2000 runs in T20Is, Surya will also be looking go past Australia cricketer David Warner in terms of hitting most sixes in the format. The India skipper for this series is no less than a beast when it comes to the shortest format and has already smacked 104 maximums in just 50 innings. Warner has 105 sixes to his name in 99 innings in T20Is but will miss this series having withdrawn his name after winning the World Cup especially ahead of his career's last Test series against Pakistan at home next month.
Surya has a great chance to go past a player like Warner in the first T20I itself. Perhaps, if he manages to hit four more sixes, then the Mumbai cricketer will enter in the top 10 list of players to hit most sixes in T20Is. Rohit Sharma owns this record having smashed 182 sixes in his illustrious T20I career. Virat Kohli is at the joint-seventh position along with Jos Buttler in this aspect having smacked 117 sixes and if Suryakumar Yadav displays exceptional form in this series, he has all the chance to go past Kohli as well.
The pressure will be on Surya too with captaincy responsibility added and he would be keen on proving his mettle in white-ball cricket after a poor show in the World Cup, especially in the final. He could only muster 18 runs in 28 balls with one four when India needed him the most in the last few overs.
India squad for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
