India's Predicted XI for first T20I against Australia

The Indian cricket team are on a roll with a series win against West Indies. The young guns stood out and showed up in all the departments taking India home in all three formats. While Prithvi Shaw sent out a statement in fashion in the Test series, scoring 237 runs in 2 matches, taking home the Man of the Series trophy, it was all Virat Kohli's show in the ODI series.

The skipper scored 453 runs in five games and won the series single-handedly for India and was rightly adjudged the Man of the Series. Kuldeep Yadav was the highest wicket-taker picking up 9 wickets.

In the T20 series, while Shikhar Dhawan showed up big in the batting department, scoring 138 runs in three matches, it was Kuldeep Yadav who once again ended up as the leading wicket-taker with 5 wickets in three games.

Overall, the series was filled with good performances from every single-player and each did their best to help India win the series. The youngsters have been sensational and gave enough reasons to smile for Indian cricket fans.

While the outcome of the series against West Indies was just like the way we would have expected, it is definitely not going to be very easy in Australia. However, this is India's best chance to defeat Australia on their soil.

The Australian team is entering the T20 series without their stars David Warner and Steve Smith, two stars who are known for their ability to win games single-handedly. They are very inexperienced and India definitely have a chance to do something special.

Let's take a look at the predicted XI for the first T20I

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Openers:

Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan is coming off a terrific series against West Indies

Shikhar Dhawan was sensational in the series against West Indies and scored 138 runs in 3 innings, including a half-century at an average of 46.00.

He is definitely one of the most important players of the Indian cricket team in T20Is and ODIs and is all but certain to start at the top of the order.

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma was phenomenal in the ODI series

Rohit Sharma was phenomenal in the ODI series against West Indies and scored 389 runs at a mind-blowing average of 129.67, before following it up with a great T20 outing where he scored 121 runs at an average of 60.50.

It is no secret that team India's batting depends heavily on the start Dhawan and Rohit gives and he is a lock in the team.

Middle-order:

Virat Kohli(C)

Virat Kohli

The best batsman of the Indian side in all the three formats, Virat Kohli is coming back into the squad after getting rested for the T20 series against West Indies.

Kohli will lead the Indian side and the team's success in the series will heavily depend on how the skipper performs down under.

KL Rahul

KL Rahul is expected to get a chance in the squad

KL Rahul played in all three T20 games against West Indies but did not get enough time to bat as the openers were in form and batted for a long duration. He finished with 59 runs at a strike rate of 128.26.

However, he is known for his T20 exploits in the IPL and also in the national side and on his day, he can change the situation of the game single-handedly. It will be interesting to see how he will perform in this overseas tournament.

Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant

The dashing youngster has cemented his place in the shorter format and has been playing aggressive knocks to lift India to huge totals. In the third T20 against West Indies, he scored 58 off 38 and remained unbeaten to take India home and clinch the series, 3-0.

It is a golden opportunity for a youngster like Pant to make use of this opportunity and give India some much-needed hitting.

Wicket-Keeper and All-Rounder:

Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik

After his brilliant knock in the finals of the Nidahas Twenty20 Tri-Series a few months ago, Karthik has been a regular feature in the T20 squad and has been playing some handy innings, chipping in towards the end.

He was the wicket-keeper in the series against West Indies and scored 31* off 34 balls in the first T20, chasing a paltry score of 110.

Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya was impressive against West Indies

After performing well in the domestic circuit for so many years, Krunal Pandya finally got the opportunity to represent India and made his debut in the first T20I game against West Indies.

He was impressive and registered figures of 1/15 in four overs in his debut game. With the bat, he was aggressive and scored 21* off just 9 balls, accompanied by 3 fours. He will give India much-needed stability lower down the order as he is a reliable batsman.

Bowlers:

Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav has been sensational for India and is already one of the main bowlers for the team. It is incredible to comprehend how much he has achieved in such a short span of time and has been troubling even the best of the batsmen with his wrist-spin.

In the series against West Indies, Yadav was the leading wicket-taker in ODIs and T20s and the Windies batsmen had no answer for him as he ran through the batting lineup.

Jasprit Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah has been the spearhead of Indian bowling lineup for quite some time and is known for his ability to bowl yorkers at will. He is a lock to open the bowling attack with swing specialist, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

It is highly expected that India will go with three specialist fast bowlers in Australia and Umesh Yadav will mostly get in to fill the last spot as he can use his experience to analyse the conditions and trouble the batsmen with his bounce and pace.