Yuvraj Singh is a Match Winner: Ravi Shastri

India – with five victories out of nine matches against Australia in T20Is – can also seek motivation from the fact that they can claim the top spot in the ICC rankings if they make a clean sweep in the three-match series. Dhoni and India are badly in need of discovering some positive impetus before they begin their attempts to win the trophy for the first time since its inaugural edition, in 2007. The collective failure of the youngsters in the ODI series have added to India’s woes. “That’s the priority”, Jones said. In case there is a 2-1 win, Australia may proceed to 120 points while a 3-0 win may place Sydney on India and 124 points on 103 points. What matters is playing T20s against Australia, who have a half decent team and that too without Mitchell Starc but are still doing well.

Are the T20Is more important than the ODIs? For example, if Yuvraj can get some runs here, it will get his confidence going.

“Would you pick him in your T20 side at the moment?”

For Australia, the World T20 remains the one major tournament they haven’t won thus far, with the final in 2010 against England their best showing.

T20I squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Gurkeerat Mann Singh, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (Captain), (Wicketkeeper), Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumra, Harbhajan Singh, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishi Dhawan, Ashish Nehra. This will be one of the few T20 series played by two Test teams as usually a tour is accompanied by 1 or 2 T20 matches. Though the injury to their strike bowler Mithcell Starc will continue to act as a drawback but we have seen in the ODI series that they make up for their inexperienced bowling with their brilliant batting line-up. He retired after the 2011 World Cup but now finds himself back in the national squad as the selectors search for quick options ahead of the World T20.

For the first time in more than 80 years of Australian broadcasting, worldwide cricket Down Under will be heard via a local Hindi broadcast. They’ve brought in exciting prospects such as Travis Head and Chris Lynn, while Shaun Tait’s blistering pace, they will hope, will provide them with the X-factor needed to win the multi-team event in India. This is because Australia has batted their backsides off and broken records that have stood for 40 years.

The Indian skipper had hinted as much in the post-match press conference at the SCG, and the return of the two middle order batsmen is more than a certainty.

“India has got their batting right”. He has had an impressive run in domestic cricket and looks risky in every passing game.

“They have also just got to go out and play”. Staring at the prospect of a series whitewash after four straight defeats, India finally delivered on some promising performances to snatch a six-wicket victory with just two balls remaining. They are unplayable. But it doesn’t happen here.