Australia's Tour Of India 2017: 1st T20 International Preview

 The 3-match Paytm T20 International Series between India and Australia is all set to kick-off from Saturday - 7th October, 2017. The 1st T20 International will be played at Mahendra Singh Dhoni's backyard - JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi. Men in Blue will try to tighten their grip over the visitors. On the other hand, Steve Smith's injury has added to the misery of the Australian squad.

 This tour has been nothing less than a nightmare for Australia but they are most likely to mark their arrival in the T20 International series with a clean mindset. The players have got a much-needed break after a hectic ODI series, which they will mostly prefer moving over. This T20I series seemed to be an ideal opportunity for Australia to redeem themselves but Steve Smith has to fly back to home due to a severe shoulder injury, which will surely add to the problems of this not-so-convincing side.

 Meanwhile, Indian Cricket Team is high on confidence and would surely prefer sticking to their plans to dominate Aussies although there's a change in the format. The change in squad has availed many new options for Captain Virat Kohli and it will be interesting to see how he manages his resources now.

 As far the number game is considered, there's nothing much to choose from both the teams as both - India and Australia have won 3 of their previous 5 T20 Internationals they have played.

 All eyes will be on Daniel Christian, considering the huge experience of this format he has under his belt. Whereas, Ashish Nehra's inclusion in Team India might just prove to be a surprise package to the Australian batting line-up.

 As it has been raining heavily in Ranchi, the pitch has been under covers for most of the time which will provide a bit of relief to the bowlers. The sad part is that the forecast is expected to remain same on the afternoon of match-day as well.

Indian T20 Roster: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel.

Australian T20 Roster: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.