India vs Australia: From Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik's love for run chases to Krunal Pandya’s feats, statistical review of T20I series

Australia ended India’s consecutive run of seven bilateral T20I series wins but they were unsuccessful in becoming the first team to beat India in the third match of a bilateral T20I series.

India could not hold onto their nerves in the first T20I while the second match played at Melbourne was the first T20I to be ended without a result in Australia. India however, were clinical at Sydney in the third T20I to level the series.For India, Dinesh Karthik once again proved that he should now be considered as the permanent finisher in the shortest version of the game while the way Krunal Pandya came back after the performance in the first T20I showed that he belongs at this level.

The main concern for India should be the form of KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant coming into the Test series as both once again failed to seize the opportunities which they got. Shikhar Dhawan took his game to a different level this year in T20Is and he has numbers to back his case. On the contrary, there were some notable performances for Australia but none were convincing to say the least. They have a lot to think about before the Test series begins. However, they will have a different combination in the longest version of the game which will make the contest more interesting.

Let’s look at some of the records broken and created in the T20I series.

Virat Kohli has been remained unbeaten 12 times while chasing in T20Is, with India emerging victors on each ocasion. Karthik has been remained not out nine times while chasing, and the 'Men in Blue' have not lost any of those matches either.

No player has hit more fifty-plus scores than Kohli in T20Is now. His 61 not out off 41 balls on Sunday was the highest by a visiting captain in Australia in T20Is. It was his first fifty in the shortest version of the game this year.

Only Colin Munro (35) has hit more sixes than Rohit Sharma (31) in a calendar year in T20Is. Rohit has hit 71 sixes in this year in international cricket which is a record.

Pandya conceded 55 runs in the first T20I played at Brisbane, which is the second-worst bowling figures for a spinner in T20Is.

However, he came back brilliantly as he picked up four wickets in the third T20I and became the first spinner to take a four-wicket haul in T20Is played in Australia.

Dhawan now holds the record of amassing most runs in a calendar year in T20Is – 689 runs in 2018 at an average of 40.52 and a SR of 147.22.

During his unbeaten knock of 61 in the third T20I against Australia, Kohli went past Martin Guptill’s record of scoring most runs against an opposition in T20Is. Kohli has now amassed 488 runs against Australia in T20Is at an average of 61.00 and a SR of 142.69.