Australia ready to take on India in T20

1 Feb 2012, 7:46 am   -   Source: AAP
0 Comments
Share This
+ Comment
0
George Bailey will captain the Teenty20 team. (AAP)

George Bailey will captain the Teenty20 team. (AAP)

A crowd of over 60,000 is expected to attend tonight's first international cricket match at Sydney ANZ Stadium when Australia and India do battle in the first Twenty20 match.

A crowd of over 60,000 is expected to attend tonight's first international cricket match at Sydney ANZ Stadium when Australia and India do battle in the first Twenty20 match.

George Bailey will lead Australia in his first international match while 40-year-old spinner Brad Hogg is also likely to feature after his solid Big Bash League performances.
  
India will be keen to get their limited overs campaign off to a good start after a demoralising Test series defeat.

Tonight's match begins at 7.35pm (AEDT), with the fourth women's
Twenty20 between Australia and New Zealand to be played as a curtain-raiser from 2.05pm (AEDT).

BAILEY LAYS DOWN CHALLENGE

Captain George Bailey wants his charges to show they're worthy of a spot in this year's World Cup with a strong showing against India.
  
Bailey and his team-mates have only got a week together with the second and final match of the T20 series being played in Melbourne on Friday.
  
But the Tasmanian says a good showing by the 14 players chosen to take on the Indians could go a long way to booking them a spot on the plane to Sri Lanka for the T20 World Cup in September.

"What we're trying to do at the moment is galvanise this group and let this group know that there's a World Cup in six months and we're the 14 that have got first crack at proving we should be there," Bailey said on Tuesday.
  
"That's one reason to keep that team aspect of it together ... we know that while we're only together for a week, there's something pretty special down the road."
  
Bailey's selection as captain in place of dumped Cameron White raised eyebrows last week, particularly with the 29-year-old having a modest Big Bash League campaign for the Melbourne Stars.
  
But Bailey feels he's more than ready to make the step up to international cricket and is comfortable stepping straight into a leadership role after three years at the helm for his state.
  
"I'm here as captain, it's my team and I'm trying to do things the way I like to do them," Bailey said.
    
Bailey said the immediate challenge for his group ahead of tonight's clash with India would be maintaining the good form of the Test team after a 4-0 series whitewash.
  
"Consistency is a really important word for Twenty20. That's the hardest thing to be as a Twenty20 team.

"The one thing I'm really excited about, the group that we've got here this week is full of match-winners but they're pretty consistent match-winners."

DHONI HAPPY WITH BAILEY AS CAPTAIN
  
Bailey's international debut will also pit him against Chennai Super Kings team-mate MS Dhoni.

The Indian captain says he's excited about facing off with new Twenty20 skipper George Bailey tonight.

Dhoni plays alongside Tasmanian Bailey in the Indian Premier
League with the Chennai Super Kings and thinks Australian selectors have made the right choice by handing the 29-year-old the captaincy for the T20 series against India.
  
"He's an interesting character, he plays good cricket, he's someone who can play his strokes, he's very intelligent and understands the game well," Dhoni said of Bailey.
 
Dhoni also said his team's younger players were relishing the opportunity of taking on evergreen left-arm spinner Brad Hogg.
  
"Brad's an experienced guy and what we have seen is spinners are wily, the more they age the better they get," Dhoni said.
  
"He's also someone who has done well in the T20 locally over here so it'll be a nice contest between the youngsters and him."

The Indians trained at the SCG on Tuesday after damp practice wickets hampered their training session at ANZ Stadium.
  
Dhoni said it was hardly ideal to have had so little time in the Sydney Olympic Park venue, but with so little cricket having been played at the venue it was unlikely to give Australia much of an edge.

"It remains the same for the home team as well as the touring team. That's something that's pretty even but of course we would have liked to have gone there and spent a bit more time."

SQUADS
  
Australia: George Bailey (capt), David Warner, Travis Birt, Dan
Christian, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brad Hogg, David Hussey, Brett Lee, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Clint McKay, Matthew Wade.
  
India: MS Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Manoj Tiwary, Parthiv Patel, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Irfan Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Rahul Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin.
 

  • Follow us: 
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Youtube

Join the Discussion

Name
City / Suburb E.g. Artarmon, Sydney
Title
Comment
You have characters remaining.
Validation
What's this?
This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots.
All submitted comments become the property of SBS. They are moderated, so we reserve the right to edit comments and remove HTML tags. Not all submitted comments will be published. Publication does not mean we endorse the opinions expressed. Please read our terms and conditions for more information.