India vs Australia 2nd T20I Highlights: Rohit Sharma leads IND to six-wicket win in 8-over hitathon

The bowlers are doing some throwdowns. There is absolutely no rain at the moment and this delay is simply because of the wet outfield, which obviously is quite a dangerous prospect for the fielders. 

Well it seems the umpires are not happy with the ground and toss has been officially delayed by more than an hour now. Another inspection is scheduled for 8PM. One thing is for sure, we won't be having a 20-over competition today. 

The two captains are out there and are having a conversation with Menon, Ananthapadmanabhan and third umpire Anil Chaudhary. 

Lots of sawdust being thrown around parts of the ground and the two umpires KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Nitin Menon, are out, feeling those parts with his foot. No official update on when the toss will take place. 

It has been an amazing journey. Wonderful ride till now and am working hard for everything. I have enjoyed batting everywhere but number four is perfect for me. It helps me control the game. I enjoy batting when the pressure is high. Most important challenge in Australia would be for us to be smart with our shot selection. Everything else remains the same.

The ground was covered for much of the day on Friday and today. It isn't raining now though, which is a good sign for the match itself. 

Ravi Shastri had earlier said in his report that the pitch is “two-paced”. "There will be some rain around later so that the team that wins the toss will be looking to bowl first."

“Toss delayed due to wet outfield. Inspection at 7 PM IST,” the BCCI has said. The toss was scheduled to take place at 7pm remember and there seems to be a very real possibility of losing overs at the moment. 

The Indian batting lineup is at a peculiar spot at the moment. When firing on all cylinders, this can be a formidable unit indeed and there really is no telling what kind of score they will end up putting up. At the same time, they have Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli at the top, all of whom have blown hot and cold in recent months, though they have mostly blown hot in recent matches. Additionally, they seem to not know what to do with Rishabh Pant and for some reason seem determined to not give Dinesh Karthik anything more than four overs to bat if they can help it. Holding it all together are the in-form Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. 

Cameron Green played only the second match of his T20I career during the first match of the series and if he continues in this vein, he might just establish himself as one of the most valuable players in the world in the format. Green took the all-important wicket of Suryakumar Yadav before smashing 61 off just 30 balls as Australia's opener in place of the injured David Warner. His innings is what propelled Australia towards chasing down a target of 209 with four balls to spare. 

That might just be the question that Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid might have to decide an answer for before the toss. Reports suggest that the ace fast bowler is now fit enough to play and shielding him forever would mean that Bumrah might lack match practice before the T20 World Cup, which would also be disastrous for India. All about fine balances at the moment. 

The way Bhuvneshwar Kumar's problems are being analysed might just give the observer an interesting look into how the Indian cricket psyche works. Just as Bhuvneshwar had a rather ordinary outing in the Asia Cup, Virat Kohli also was deemed to be absorbing too many balls for much of the tournament. However, Kohli's century in the final match against a tired Afghanistan made the tournament a success for him, leading many former players to declare that the former India captain is back to the kind of form that made him the best in the world by a mile before 2019 in all formats. In that same match, Bhuvneshwar recorded absolutely mind boggling figures of 5/4 in his four overs. That's right, he bowled four overs, conceded just four runs and took five wickets. That spell has been forgotten, while the memory of Kohli's century remains fresh in opinion pieces. 

The most glaring problem that seems to have cropped up in recent matches is that two of India's senior bowlers - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal - are not quite hitting the mark. Bhuvneshwar has leaked way too many runs in the death overs, where he seems to have taken up the overs that the injured Jasprit Bumrah would have normally bowled. For Chahal, the wickets have dried up and the runs to his bowling figures have increased alarmingly. Apart from this, Harshal Patel is trying to shake off rustiness and its unclear what role the management intends for Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. 

Australia showed why they are the world champions and should never be taken for granted by making light of a 209-run chase in the first T20I. It left India with more questions to answer in the buildup to the T20 World Cup. While no team would ever like to lose matches, this may turn out to be a good thing for India, they are seeing their problems quite clearly before the T20 World Cup instead of winning match after match which might sometimes lead to teams papering over their cracks. What are those problems? Well we will take a look at all of them separately in the next few minutes leading up to the toss, which is at 7PM of course. Come along for the ride!