5 Talking Points: Australia v India, 2nd T20I

The victorious Indian T20I squad after winning their first T20I series in AustraliaAfter having won the first T20I at the Adelaide Oval convincingly, India was looking to seal the three-match series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.Australia won the toss and elected to field and allowed India to bat first. The Indian top-order once again proved their prowess as they piled on the runs at a healthy rate and scored 184/3 in 20 overs.Australia, having got off to a good start, failed to build on it and faltered in their chase, once again, as they fell short by 27 runs. Only captain Aaron Finch seemed to be in good touch as he scored a brilliant knock of 74.Finch's hamstring injury will be a matter of concern for Australia as he has been the hosts’ best player in the shorter format for a while.India, on the other hand, will be delighted with the effort put in by the batsmen and the bowlers as they put aside the disappointment of the ODI series loss and secured the T20I series 2-0 with one more game to go.Here are the five major talking points from the second T20I:

#1 Is Dhoni back?

MS Dhoni has batted with positive intent in the two T20I matches played

MS Dhoni did not have a great outing during the ODI series. In addition to not being able to come up with good scores, he was not able to play shots freely too. However, in the two T20Is played, Dhoni's intent while batting has been much better.

Although Dhoni has faced only 12 balls in the two games, he has looked to attack right from the first ball he faces. He came in to bat at a time when a batsman cannot take much time to settle down. In the first game, he scored 11 off 3 balls while in the second T20I, Dhoni scored 14 off 9 balls.

Dhoni's intent is probably showing that he is finding his touch in batting at the right time before the World T20 begins. If Dhoni can continue playing positively as he has, so far, it would go a long way in helping India late in the batting innings when runs have to be scored at a good rate.

#2 Batting form of India\'s top three

Rohit Sharma (L) and Virat Kohli (R) have been phenomenal with the bat in 2016 so far

The Indian batting has been quite brilliant so far in the series with the top three batsmen scoring plenty of runs. Although Shikhar Dhawan has not been very consistent, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been in a different league altogether.

Rohit and Kohli both scored valuable fifties in the second T20Is as Dhawan chipped in with 42, which was his highest T20I score, to help India post a competitive total once again.

Rohit has scored 605 runs in nine games in the series so far at a very impressive average of 75.62. Kohli, however, has been a cut above scoring 611 runs in nine games at an outstanding average of 87.28.

Dhawan has scored 412 runs in nine innings at an average of 45.77. The next highest run-getter for India is Rahane with 184 runs. Although this might show a bit of an over-reliance on the top three, it does give India assurance of a good start to the batting innings.

#3 Australia\'s failure to build on a good start

Aaron Finch again took his side off to a good start

Australia after having lost the T20I series will rue the opportunity they had to win both the games. The openers got Australia off to a great start in the two T20Is, but they failed to build on it as the hosts folded and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Aaron Finch was Australia's best batsman in the second T20I as he scored a brilliant 74 off 48 balls. When Finch was at the crease it seemed like Australia were still in the game. However, just like in the first game, once Finch got out Australia's chances to win significantly dropped.

This shows the Australian middle-order's failure to build on the good foundation set by the opening batsmen. It could be argued that in the second T20I Australia had a relatively inexperienced lineup, but, after having got off to such a dominating start, Australia will feel that they gave the match away.

#4 Indian spinners\' performance

Indian spinners got India back into the game

The Indian pace bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the Australian openers, especially by Finch, at the start of the innings. In 10 overs, Australia had reached a score of 94, well on their way to chasing down India's total.

However, once MS Dhoni introduced his spin bowlers, things started slowing down as pace off the ball did not allow free runs for the Australian batsmen.

Yuvraj Singh's introduction turned out to be a masterstroke as he picked up the wicket of danger man, Glenn Maxwell. In the two overs that the left-arm bowler bowled, he gave away only seven runs.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin picked up two wickets each and contained the Australian batsmen to a large extent, forcing the batsmen to go for risky shots.

#5 Indian fielders - From zero to hero

Jadeja's catch to dismiss Shane Watson was an absolute blinder

The Indian fielding started off quite poorly as a few chances were dropped, with Umesh Yadav, Rishi Dhawan and Shikhar Dhawan being the culprits. Shikhar Dhawan's was the easiest of the chances that India messed up and could have put Australia in a spot of bother much earlier.

However, Hardik Pandya's catch to dismiss Shaun Marsh was the turning point in the fielding department. Pandya barely latched on to the ball as the ball almost slipped out of his grasp.

From the fall of the first wicket, Indian fielders seemed to be extra motivated and put in extra effort as they dived around and saved valuable runs for their team.

The best of the lot was Jadeja's ripper to dismiss Shane Watson off his own bowling. Watson was visibly shocked at the effort by the Indian bowler, who once again showed why he is one of India's best fielders.

In addition to the catches, Dhoni's quick work behind the stumps was immensely crucial as he had two stumpings and was involved in the run-out dismissal of the dangerous Finch.