After slumping to a narrow four-run defeat at The Gabba, the Virat Kohli-led Indian team will look to bounce back and level the ongoing three-match T20I series against Australia when the two sides cross swords in the second T20I at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday.
Having clinched seven bilateral T20I series in a row, the Men in Blue will definitely look to shrug off their opening-match defeat at the hands of Aaron Finch's side and register a victory at the MCG in order to keep alive their hopes in the series.
All eyes will once again be on Indian swashbuckling opener Rohit Sharma, who needs just 57 more runs to surpass New Zealand's Martin Guptill and become the leading run-scorer in the shortest format of the game. Sharma has amassed a total of 2,214 runs from 84 matches he played so far.
Earlier, Sharma, who headed into the opening T20I needing just 64 runs to top the run-scoring chart, failed to click with the bat and fell cheaply for seven runs off Jason Behrendorff's delivery.
Kohli, on the other hand, is currently sitting at the fifth spot on the list with 2,106 runs in 63 matches. The skipper, who has been in sublime form for the last few years, will look to plunder runs in the second T20I to push himself upward in the list.
Meanwhile, opener Shikhar Dhawan, who snapped Kohli's record of most T20 international runs by notching up 76 runs off just 42 balls in a calendar year during the Brisbane match, will also look to add more runs to his tally. Dhawan has notched up a total of 648 runs from 16 games he played so far.
Kohli had earlier held a record with 641 runs in 13 innings, which the skipper scored in 2016.
As far as Playing XI is concerned, India may make a few changes in the squad, keeping in mind the struggle faced by the Aussies against the wrist spin of Kuldeep Yadav. Yuzvendra Chahal may make the cut for the second T20I.
With KL Rahul failing to perform with the bat in the opening match, Manish Pandey can expect a call up in the team's middle order.
Australia, on the other hand, might go ahead with the same squad that delivered them with a rare win.
The probable Playing XIs are as follows:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (captain), Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed/Yuzvendra Chahal
Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott, Alex Carey (wk), Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Jason Behrendorff, Billy Stanlake.
