Australian T20I squad and their IPL experience

The ODI series between India and Australia is done and dusted and the men in blue have won it comfortably by a margin of 4-1. This type of a scoreline is not something the Australian loyalists are accustomed to, as it is heartbreaking for them to watch the ‘once upon a time’ invincible team stumble in front of the mighty men of Virat Kohli.

The focus has shifted from the one-dayers, and it is now time for the shortest and probably the most entertaining format of the beautiful game to spread its wings in this cricket crazy part of the world. The three upcoming T20Is have a different importance to Steve Smith, as this time, the dignity and the fighting spirit of the team has been questioned. Cricket Australia has selected the warriors to will take the field to regain glory. Let’s take look at the performance of the Aussie players in the recent series, and in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

1. David Warner

The swashbuckling left-handed Australian opener is one of the few players who got in form though towards the end of the series but he ensured the team had powerful starts. He scored 245 runs in 5 matches with the help of a century and a half ton. Looking at his relationship with the Indian conditions, he is an IPL winning skipper for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and knows everything about the conditions here. It will be interesting to see how he performs in front of his ‘home’ crowd in Hyderabad in the final match.

He shares the SRH dressing room with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, India’s lead bowler for the power plays and the death, he will know a trick or two that he has up his sleeves and the other way round as well. It will be interesting to see how he performs in front of his ‘home’ crowd in Hyderabad in the final match. Warner has played a total of 114 matches in his career and scored 4014 runs at an average of 40.54; he has 3 hundreds and 36 fifties to his name.

2. Aaron Finch

Finch was the best Australian batter in the recently concluded series, scoring 250 runs in just 3 games. He missed the first couple of matches owing to an injury and the opening combination failed miserably, showing us what he means to the team. Playing for Gujarat Lions, he knows the conditions well just like Warner, as the opening combination for T20Is looks all but set for the kangaroos. Finch has featured in 65 matches and scored 1604 runs at a strike rate of 130.08.

3. Steve Smith

Smith has been on the receiving end of stern criticism, but his performance for the Rising Pune Supergiant was quite remarkable. Though 142 runs from 5 matches don’t glorify the huge calibre of someone like Smith but keeping his superb stint with RPS earlier this year in mind, we can expect him to go all guns blazing in the T20Is. He also led them to the finals in season 10 and would know how pitches in India play during the shortest format of the game.

The Aussies skipper once played under and then captained MS Dhoni in the IPL, Smith would best know how the masterful keeper likes to operate based on the course of play and how he would react to break the run of play if going against his team. Smith has been a part of the IPL since 2012 and in all has played 69 matches to score 1703 runs with a decent average of 37.02, he has an IPL hundred in his account.

4. Travis Head

Having played under the Indian skipper Virat Kohli in the IPL, Head has carried his impressive form from the IPL in this series as well, as is now becoming a player on whom Smith can rely on. With his 119 runs in 5 games, he is expected to feature in the T20I series. Smith will want him to do what exactly he did in the IPL- scoring runs late down the order and at a strike rate of around 140. In all Head has played 10 games in the Indian domestic T20 league and scored 205 runs.