HYDERABAD: Australia’s tour of India began amid expectations – fed by the recent history between these two teams – of gargantuan totals and bruised bowling egos. As it happened, the five ODIs only produced one first-innings total above 300, and the T20Is have been no different so far – Australia made 118 for 8 in the rain-affected series opener in Ranchi, and India were bowled out for the same total in Guwahati. Both teams, therefore, reach the end of this scuffle looking to pick at holes in the opposition’s batting. Is India’s middle order still a little unsettled, still a little unsure of what it wants to be in the shortest format? Is Australia’s middle order still susceptible to spin? Does Glenn Maxwell go pale when anyone whispers “Yuzvendra Chahal” into his ear? Both teams reach Hyderabad with a trophy to play for, while knowing they remain works in progress in 20-overs cricket, as their mid-table status in the ICC T20I rankings would suggest. An Australia win would cause the two teams to swap places on the table. An India win would keep them in fifth place, but move them within a point of England in fourth, while causing Australia to slip below South Africa, to seventh. In the spotlight: David Warner loves the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. The Sunrisers Hyderabad captain has scored more T20 runs here (1291) than anyone else, at an average of 61.47 and a strike rate of 162.79. He’s had a quiet series so far, and there’s no better place for him to turn in a match- and series-winning performance as Australia’s stand-in captain. So far in his T20I career, Hardik Pandya has only batted 11 times in 21 matches. He came in to bat in the 10th over, in a crisis situation, in Guwahati, but in five of his last six T20Is before that had either not batted or come to the crease inside the last two overs of India’s innings. It seems a bit of a waste for such a richly talented and destructive batsman to get so few balls to face, and India might benefit from promoting him up the order. Team news: Dinesh Karthik had a long net and throwdown session on the eve of the match, and India might try him or KL Rahul in the middle order, possibly in place of Manish Pandey. Given the state of the series, it seems unlikely that India will give Ashish Nehra a game in the city he last represented in the IPL ahead of his farewell game at his actual home ground. Marcus Stoinis came in for Daniel Christian in Guwahati and did an excellent job with the ball, conceding only 20 in his four overs and picking up the wicket of Hardik Pandya. Given that performance, Jason Behrendorff’s with the new ball, and those of Moises Henriques and Travis Head in their chase, Australia seem unlikely to make any changes to their XI. Squads: India (probable): 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey/Dinesh Karthik/KL Rahul, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal. Australia (probable): 1 Aaron Finch, 2 David Warner (capt), 3 Moises Henriques, 4 Travis Head, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Tim Paine (wk), 8 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 9 Andrew Tye, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Jason Behrendorff. Published in Daily Times, October 13th 2017.