2nd T20I, Sydney: India opt to bowl, Matthew Wade captains Australia

India won the toss and chose to bowl in the second Twenty20 International against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. There were plenty of changes to the Indian and Australian camps heading into the match. Jasprit Bumrah was not picked again while Mohammed Shami was handed a rest. Manish Pandey had pain on his elbow and he was not picked in the side. For Australia, they lost their regular limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch and Matthew Wade was appointed as the captain of the Australia team.

The other changes in the Australian team apart from Finch was the absence of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. Starc was out of the T20I squad due to a family emergency while Hazlewood was rested. Daniel Sams, Marcus Stoinis and Andrew Tye were in the squad, with Sams making his debut in T20Is for Australia. Stoinis recovered from a side strain that he sustained in the Sydney ODIs and that will be a big boost for Australia.

For India, Yuzvendra Chahal replaced Jadeja after he was included in the Canberra game as a concussion substitute. Shardul Thakur replaced Mohammed Shami while Shreyas Iyer came in for Manish Pandey. “Well someone had to step in (to lead the side). Happy to be captaining Australia. Finch, Hazlewood, Starc are out. Sams, Stoinis and Tye are in,” Wade said. Kohli, on the other hand said, “Pitch looked really nice in the second half in the previous games we played. They are missing Aaron Finch today, so we want to restrict them and chase it down.

Playing 11s

Australia: D Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade(w/c), Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye

India: KL Rahul(w), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Yuzvendra Chahal