India, Australia to lock horns for series decider in Hyderabad

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], Oct. 13 (ANI): For the first time in this limited-overs tour, Australia are on an even footing with India, having bounced back to level the three-match T20I series at 1-1 after losing the ODI series 1-4.

And thus, the visitors would be looking to end their Tour on a high when the two sides meet in the third and final T20I match at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium to be played today.

However, rain might play spoilsport as the forecast is not promising with the met department predicting thundershowers during the match hours.

On what has been a morale-breaking tour for Australia, the team failed to consolidate after being in strong positions in many of the exchanges in the ODIs.

But Tuesday's turnaround in Guwahati where they registered an eight-wicket win came as a silver lining.

Left-arm paceman Jason Behrendorff, rattled the Indian top order with quality swing and seam bowling, and Adam Zampa's wrist spin looked at par with that of his Indian counterparts.

Apart from him, Moises Henriques and Travis Head also stepped up and finished India's resistance while chasing 119 in Guwahati.

In the lead up to the decider, a couple of off-field developments - a rock tossed at the Australian team bus in Guwahati and Ashish Nehra's impending retirement announcement - have been major talking points.

Thus, a cracker of a match could be expected between the two teams, provided the rain gods stay away from Hyderabad.

Teams:

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vice-capt), 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.

Australia: David Warner (capt), Jason Behrendorff, Marcus Stoinis, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine (wk), Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye. (ANI)