India vs Australia: Rinku evolves into a proven finisher, Axar makes a case and more takeaways from T20I series

The just-concluded five-match T20I series between India and Australia provided the perfect opportunity for the Men in Blue to test their bench strength. With Hardik Pandya missing out after being injured and the team management preferring youngsters over the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, the hosts successfully saw off an Australia challenge to go on and win the series 4-1. However, this series win was just a small stepping stone towards next summer’s T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA. The series, though, would have given both teams somewhat an idea of where they stand at the moment. We now take a look at five key takeaways from the India-Australia T20I series: Rinku Singh evolves into a proven finisher With Hardik Pandya missing this series after sustaining an ankle injury during the ODI World Cup, one of India’s major areas of focus was on who could be labelled as a “finisher”. Rinku Singh welcomed this opportunity with both hands and delivered the goods in style. Ever since his heroics for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against Gujarat Titans (GT) in IPL 2023, Rinku Singh has been primed to secure that finisher tag in the India T20I side. In the T20Is against Australia, the 26-year-old showed promise. He held his nerve with an  unbeaten 22 in the first T20I and despite losing wickets at the other end in the final over, Rinku would make sure India crossed the finish line in Vizag with two wickets to spare. He followed that up with an unbeaten 31 in the second game in Thiruvananthapuram, showcasing his aggressive self by hitting out of the park in his nine-ball cameo. Rinku would then go onto play a series-defining knock of 46 in the fourth T20I in Raipur, and while he did not have to bat in the third match in Guwahati, his only single figure score of the series came in the fifth T20I on Sunday when he was dismissed for six by tanveerr Sangha after looking to drag a fuller length ball towards long-on. Axar Patel has still got it with the ball Axar Patel might have given a stern reminder to the selectors on a trick they would have missed by not selecting him for the T20I series against South Africa in South Africa that starts on 10 December. [caption id=“attachment_13455342” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Axar Patel finished the series with six wickets. AP[/caption] An injury had forced Axar to miss the ODI World Cup, but made full use of the T20I series against Australia. He went wicketless in only one match, the first T20I in Vizag, but would go onto take at least one wicket in each of the remaining games. Axar, though, particularly stood out in the fourth T20I, when he claimed figures of 3/16. He would go onto concede just the one boundary off Ben McDermott at the start of the 12th over, while removing him the very next ball. Earlier in the same match, Axar went onto dismiss Travis Head as well as Aaron Hardie. Ravi Bishnoi shows promise Getting into the India squad for the T20 World Cup won’t be easy for Ravi Bishnoi. With his performance against Australia, however, Bishnoi might have gone ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal in the pecking order. [caption id=“attachment_13433022” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Ravi Bishnoi finished the series as the top wicket-taker with nine wickets. Sportzpics[/caption] While Bishnoi was prolific with his googlies against Australia, the only game where he went expensive was the first T20I in Vizag, when he conceded 54 runs despite taking the wicket of Matthew Short. Bishnoi would follow that up with figures of 3/32, 2/32, 1/17 and 2/29 in the remaining matches. Arshdeep Singh stands tall under pressure Time and again, Arshdeep Singh has been guilty of conceding extras very often, especially in the death overs. He played just three games in the series against Australia and ended up conceding 40 runs or more in each of the games. In the fifth match in Bengaluru, the 24-year-old went for 37 runs his first three overs, but was given with the responsibility to bowl the final over, with Australia needing 10 runs. Arshdeep though would deliver under pressure, beating Wade in the first two balls before dismissing him in the third with an attempted yorker. Australia needed 10 off three balls after Wade’s dismissal and had the skipper still been there, Australia might have still had the chance. However, pressure on Behrendorff and Ellis meant India had the last laugh, as Arshdeep controlled the situation of the game in the end to help the hosts secure a six-run win. Australia openers fail to fire in powerplay Barring the first game when Steve Smith a fifty, for the rest of the series, Australia’s openers had a hard time in the middle dealing in the powerplay overs. Travis Head got off to starts on a few occasions, but ended giving up his wicket on each of these occasions, aggregating just 94 runs from three games. However, with scores of 25, 31 and 28,  one would still feel Head was a bit better than compared to Josh Philippe, Matthew Short and Aaron Hardie, who batted as openers in the series as well but failed to make much impact. Another major difference is that Australia were missing David Warner in this series, but despite Warner’s absence, this was still a good platform for the newer generation of batters to prove themselves. Australia, however, will have to get back to the drawing board and look to solve the opening pair puzzle in T20Is. T20Is, though, will take a back seat for Australia at least until February, when they host west  Indies for a three-match series.