India vs Australia Third T20I: Latest Odds & Analysis

India v Australia predictions: 

• India to hit the most sixes - 2.0 @ Bet365
• Steve Smith to outscore Matt Short - 1.8 @ Bet365
• Ishan Kishan top India runscorer - 4.5 @ Bet365

When: Tuesday 28 November, 7:00pm IST 

Where: Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati

Watch: Sports18, JioCinema

Best Odds: India 1.78, Australia 2.15

Two down, three to go. The five-game T20I series that nobody asked for (but many are nonetheless enjoying) moves from one side of the country to the other, this time from the south-west coast to the north-east state of Assam.

Guwahati were expecting to see their heroes take to the field last month prior to the World Cup, but bad weather intervened and washed out a warm-up game against England.

The forecast for Tuesday evening is clear, cool, and home fans in attendance will be hoping to see India wrap up the series 3-0 after a thoroughly dominant back half of their batting innings in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. 

Cricket betting sites are offering a very similar price for both teams as they were for that game, suggesting they don’t expect there to be much of a difference between the two sides than there was in the previous game. 

The Numbers That Matter

• Australia’s previous opening partnership of 35 was their best in 14 T20Is
• Jason Behrendorff was Player of the Match in Australia’s only Guwahati T20I (4-21)
• Prasidh Krishna to Marcus Stoinis in T20Is: 1-50 from 16 balls!
• Ravi Bishnoi dismissed Matt Short in each of the first two matches

The six count is all that matters!

That’s not true, of course, as far as determining a winner is concerned…

But after India outscored Australia in the sixes column in six consecutive home T20Is dating back to 2019, a reasonably strong sample size, there’s a good price on offer for them to do it for a seventh time.

All six of India’s batters that made it to the crease in the previous match cleared the fence at least once, and a further four of them would have done so in the first T20I had Rinku Singh’s “match winning” six not been cancelled out by a front-foot no-ball that preceded it.

All up, India has already struck 24 sixes in their two matches compared to Australia’s 21, though eight of Australia’s 21 came from a single Josh Inglis innings in game one. 

The home nation peppered ten sixes in the last seven overs of their previous innings alone, and if they can get into a similar rhythm again in Guwahati, they’re going to be tough to stop.

The two major risks to this play are that the odds shift slightly in Australia’s favour if Travis Head returns - and by all reports at time of publication it’s unlikely - as well as it being a “3-way market”, meaning the bet loses in case of a tie.

Prediction: India to hit the most sixes - 2.0 @ Bet365

Teammates by name, competitors in reality

Steve Smith and Matt Short have been a left-field opening partnership as part of what stand-in head coach Andre Borovec admits is all part of some experimentation to find David Warner’s opening partner for next year’s T20 World Cup.

That’s if Warner chooses to play and/or is selected, but at this stage it appears that there’ll be one place available at the top of the order. 

Of course, Smith and Short can both also be considered for middle order roles, but the competition for numbers three to seven is particularly fierce at the moment.

But we digress. Smith has been the better performer of the two so far and has a far better all-round record in India than his teammate Short, who has 43 ODI/T20I runs from four innings to his name as well as an IPL batting average of just 19.50.

Smith’s T20I record in India isn’t anything to be desired either (229 runs at 22.90), but his half-century in the opening game has him starting well ahead in this race.

Prediction: Steve Smith to outscore Matt Short - 1.8 @ Bet365

King Kishan to Cash In

Despite recording half-centuries in both matches of the series so far, Ishan Kishan did not register India’s top score in either. 

He has set a platform for bigger and better things and, as someone will probably have to make way for Shreyas Iyer after this game (assuming Shreyas is being added to the squad to actually play some cricket), there’ll be a few top and middle order batters anxious to make a case for two more caps.

Perhaps most impressively of all, Kishan now averages more than 67 across all T20s against the six bowlers Australia used in the second T20I, including 53 runs from 23 balls bowled by Tanveer Sangha and 53 from 39 bowled by Stoinis.

Prediction: Ishan Kishan top India runscorer - 4.5 @ Bet365