Ranchi T20I: Confident India look to extend dominance against depleted Aussies

Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], Oct. 7 (ANI): Coming on the back of a comfortable five-match ODI series win, India will aim to extend their dominance over Australia when the two sides head into the opening T20I of the three-match series here today.

India, who clinched the ODI series against Australia 4-1 to reclaim the number one spot in the ICC rankings, will be riding high on confidence and will aim for a perfect finish to the campaign with the T20I series.

Australia, on the other hand, will look to get back to the winning rhythm with the Ashes coming up in a month's time.

The Virat Kohli-led side will be boosted by the return of veteran pacer Ashish Nehra, batsman Dinesh Karthik and opener Shikhar Dhawan in the T20 squad.

Dhawan missed the ODI series to attend his ailing wife, while KL Rahul's inclusion at the expense of an in-form Ajinkya Rahane will also add to the stiff competition in the top order.

Meanwhile, the visitors will hope for a better performance from their middle order, including the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Travis Head, who failed to click as a unit during the recently-concluded ODI series.

The two squads are as follows:

India T20 squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), 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.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (Captain), David Warner (vice-captain), Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine (WK), Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.(ANI)