Player of the match: Cameron Green.

Brief scores:

India 208/6 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 71 not out, KL Rahul 55; Nathan Elis 3/30, Josh Hazlewood 2/39)

Australia: 211/6 in 19.2 over (Cameron Green 61, Matthew Wade 45 not out; Axar Patel 3/17)

— via PTI

AUSTRALIA WIN BY 4 WICKETS: Cummins with a punch through cover for four and Australia win with four balls to spare. Really, apart from the 11-15 phase, they seemed in complete control.

WICKET! 19.1: Tim David 18(14) ct Hardik Pandya b Yuzvendra Chahal A consolation wicket for Chahal as David went for a finish with a flourish. Australia 207/6

Australia 207/5 after 19 overs: 16 runs off Bhuvi’s 19th over. Wade finishes with three fours on the trot. Nothing much else to say, really. Australia need 2 off 6 balls.

18 needed off 12 balls, will this go to the last over?

Australia 191/5 after 18 overs: That’s a HUGE OVER! 22 runs from Harshal’s 4th, two sixes for Wade over the leg side and one for David too.

Australia 169/5 after 17 overs: The pressure built by Harshal has been released by a 15-run over from Bhuvi. Did well with his length to start off, getting full, but the line was a bit off. Two fours for Wade.

Australia need 55 off 4 overs.

Australia 154/5 after 16 overs: That’s a fantastic over by Harshal Patel, the kind of over he has been delivering for RCB regularly in recent times. Despite a four for Wade, just six off it.

Australia 148/5 after 15 overs: They need 61 from 30 balls. Very much achievable.

WICKET! 14.1: Josh Inglis 17(10) b Axar Patel The fall of wickets will be India’s best bet here. Axar strikes again and he has deceived Inglis on line. Bowled around the pads. Australia 145/5

Australia 145/4 after 14 overs: The rate is still very much manageable for Australia, a four each for Inglis and David in that Hardik over.

Australia 134/4 after 13 overs: Two fours for Inglis off Chahal and Australia keep up their good scoring rate. Tim David is in, and he can change this match in no time if he gets going.

WICKET! 11.6: Glenn Maxwell 1(3) ct Dinesh Karthik b Umesh Yadav What an over! Umesh was taken for a six and four early on and then he comes back to remove Smith first and then Maxwell. The umpire gives this not out too but the short ball took the edge clearly this time. Australia 123/4

WICKET! 11.3: Steven Smith 35(24) ct Dinesh Karthik b Umesh Yadav India were convinced Smith edged that. India review. UltraEdge shows a spike. But it might have been bat hitting the pitch too? The previous replay did show a deviation though. Australia 122/3

WICKET! 10.1: Cameron Green 61(30) ct Virat Kohli b Axar Patel He dropped Green a while back, and then saw him reach a fifty with a six off his bowling but Axar finally does dismiss the Aussie allrounder. Kohli makes no mistake on the high catch. Australia 109/2

Australia 109/1 after 10 overs: The scoreline about sums up India’s worries at the moment. They haven’t been defending targets well recently and this seems to be heading in that direction. Green with another six in that Harshal over. If Australia don’t win this here, they will be really disappointed.

Half century for Cameron Green! Asked to open the batting, he has batted like a dream tonight. He has had a couple of reprieves, but made the most of it so far. Earlier in the over, Rahul put one down at long off as Smith gets a life. AUS: 99/1 after 9 overs.

Australia 90/1 after 8 overs: Cam Green’s day out with the bat. Missed review, now a rather simple catch in the deep put down by Axar as Hardik dug one in short. The partnership is 51* off 29 balls.

Australia 79/1 after 7 overs: Cam Green is on fire! 6, 0, 6, 4 to finish that Chahal over, all targetting the leg side. Australia are in a hurry here.

Australia 60/1 after 6 overs: Checked his shot but Smith still gets one over mid-off off Harshal for four. Green finishes the powerplay with another four too and that is a great start for AUS.

Australia 48/1 after 5 overs: Chahal with a quiet over and should have had the wicket of Green too. No review from India and replays now show it would have been overturned.

WICKET! 3.3: Aaron Finch 22(13) b Axar Patel Spin in, wicket for India. Arrow from Axar, Finch plays all around it. Clean bowled. Australia 39/1

Australia 38/0 after 3 overs: Finch is standing and delivering! Australia are dealing in boundaries at the moment. Three fours in that Bhuvi over.

Kohli’s reaction to Green’s power.

Australia 24/0 after 2 overs: Expensive return to T20I cricket for Umesh. What power from Green!

Cameron Green’s last three balls while bowling: 6, 6, 6

Cameron Green’s first four balls while batting: 4, 4, 4, 4

Australia 8/0 after 1 over: Finch, who has had his issues against Bhuvi in the past, starts off with a first-ball six. Length ball, lofted down over long off. DK stood up to stumps in that over to keep Finch pinned to the crease. Good comeback by Bhuvi to keep it to 8.

India 208/6 after 20 overs: HARDIK PANDYA FINISHES WITH 6, 6, 6! What ball-striking. Refused a single to Harshal Patel, got lucky with a complete mishit falling in no-man’s land, and then goes BOOM. Over midwicket. Over long-off. Over point. The straight six was crazy.

Cam Green to bowl the last over.

HALF CENTURY! What an innings by Hardik Pandya. Looked in great touch from the moment he walked in to bat. 51* off 25 balls. Harshal, whose batting smarts is often underrated, should have had a four and six in that over, but for Maxwell’s genius. INDIA 187/6 after 19 overs.

GENIUS: Maxwell with a stunning effort to save a six at long on. Harshal didn’t even run initially.

WICKET! 18.1: Dinesh Karthik 6(5) lbw Nathan Ellis Never really got going, did DK. A soft dismissal. Missed a length ball, given not out. Australia took a reluctant review. And three reds! India 176/6

India 176/5 after 18 overs: Superb ball striking by Hardik! A six over midwicket off Cummins early in the over and then a slightly mishit but high percentage lofted shot over mid-off for four. Big over for India, 16 runs. 200 should be gettable from here. Hardik on 46 off 23 balls.

India 160/5 after 17 overs: Streaky four to start the over, but then smacks one down the ground with all the power he has. This has been a fine little innings from Hardik already.

WICKET! 15.5: Axar Patel 6(5) ct Cameron Green b Nathan Ellis The Axar move didn’t exactly pan out but he didn’t gobble up deliveries either. Still might have made sense to hold him back as an insurance should a wicket fall now. DK is in. Great over by Ellis too. India 146/5

And there was a delightful straight drive by Axar in the previous over.

India 141/4 after 15 overs: Some shot by Hardik off Cummins in that over! Short of length, just a flat-batted slap past cover point for four.

India 131/4 after 14 overs: So, still not sending Dinesh Karthik before the final few overs. Axar Patel given a go early here. Hardik meanwhile has already hit one of the shots tonight with a pull for six.

WICKET! 13.3: Suryakumar Yadav 46(25) ct Matthew Wade b Cameron Green End of a fine innings by SKY. Sometimes when you have so many shots, it is hard to always pick the right one. Tried to get cheeky with this one from short of length and edges it to the keeper. Superb striking before that. India 126/4

India 119/3 after 13 overs: SURYAKUMAR! This has been a gem of an innings. A super flick of wrists in the previous over, and now two sixes off Zampa’s over... over the leg side, showing off his range.

WICKET! Over 11.5: K L Rahul 55(35) ct Nathan Ellis b Josh Hazlewood He had already played that shot once really well but this time the knuckle ball means the timing is a little bit off. And it’s a good trap. Ravi Shastri on air says he would be disappointed with that shot because he was in great touch. That’s the thing though. He actually *shouldn’t* be disappointed with any of that innings. India 103/3

HALF CENTURY: 50 off 32 balls for KL Rahul. Those sixes have been delightful to watch, India would love to see a few more of those from his bat tonight. INDIA: 91/2 after 11 overs

India are rebuilding after losing Rohit and Kohli early. The partnership between KL and SKY now over 50 runs. Zampa will resume action. Can India get close to 200?

India 86/2 after 10 overs: Slightly quiet over by the recent standards set by these two, Ellis with a 7-run over as we head for a drinks break.

India 79/2 after 9 overs: Slog sweep over midwicket for six to welcome Glenn Maxwell into the bowing attack. Rahul is in some touch.

India 69/2 after 8 overs: STUNNING SHOT! Superb from KL Rahul to whip one over long leg for six... and some distance! Follows that up with a four over cover. Great intent post powerplay.

India 56/2 after 7 overs: Really top wristwork by Surya for a four off Zampa. That’s good intent for the 7th over.

Video: This was some shot by KL Rahul.

India 46/2 after 6 overs: Right when we were ready to declare the powerplay was Australia’s, Suryakumar finishes it on a good note for India to tilt the scales a little bit to India’s side. A four and a brilliant six over long leg off Cummins. Trusted the bounce and played one his signature shots off his hip. Australia still would be the happier side, but that helps.

WICKET! 4.5: Virat Kohli 2(7) ct Cameron Green b Nathan Ellis The wait begins for No 72. (We kid, we kid!) The former India captain didn’t quite get the timing or elevation right on that attempt to clear mid on, ends up being a low catch. Stunned silence in the stadium. India 35/2

India 30/1 after 4 overs: Really good yorker length deliveries from Zampa to Kohli, cramping up for room early on. A good over spoiled a little bit by a four over point by Rahul.

Kohli is in, so Zampa is in.

India 25/1 after 3 overs: Rahul played a stunning shot for six in that over, great use of the wrists! Glorious. Gets a streaky four later on. Kohli has walked out to middle to a huge ovation.

WICKET! Over 2.4: Rohit Sharma 11(9) ct Nathan Ellis b Josh Hazlewood There is no misjudgement this time. Another lofted shot through the leg side and this is taken very well by Ellis diving forward. India 21/1

India 14/0 after 2 overs: Rohit Sharma is up and running. Flicks Pat Cummins for six over fine leg (although if Hazlewood was at the boundary line that was a easy catch, misjudged it). Finishes the over with a lofted square cut for four. There was a peach from Cummins in between all that, there is a little bit on this pitch.

India 4/0 after 1 over: Just a couple of singles and a two in that opening over. Tidy from Hazlewood despite starting off with a freebie on the pad of Rahul that wasn’t put away.

Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli together at Mohali.

Rahul and Rohit in the middle, Hazlewood to start off.

6.55 pm: Interesting start to the broadcast, with Matthew Hayden, the commentator saying he thinks Inglis will open and questioning the graphics after Finch said Green will open the batting.

IND vs AUS men's T20Is (in India)

Winner Margin Ground Start Date
India 7 wickets Brabourne 20 Oct 2007
India 6 wickets Rajkot 10 Oct 2013
India 6 wickets Mohali 27 Mar 2016
India 9 wickets Ranchi 7 Oct 2017
Australia 8 wickets Guwahati 10 Oct 2017
*Abandoned - Hyderabad (Deccan) 13 Oct 2017
Australia 3 wickets Visakhapatnam 24 Feb 2019
Australia 7 wickets Bengaluru 27 Feb 2019
Courtesy: ESPNCricinfo Statsguru

6.44 pm: A bit confused about the Indian team selection. (Not about the wicket-keeping slot, that has been confusing for a while.) If Bumrah is not playing, wouldn’t it make more sense to at least play Deepak Chahar who is in the reserves for World Cup instead of Umesh Yadav who is not in the 19?

Team news

So the big news once again is concerning the wicket-keeping slot. In the musical chairs, it is Rishabh Pant who is sitting out once again. And Rohit Sharma says no Jasprit Bumrah tonight, perhaps to play the next two matches. Easing him in, understandably, we suppose. For Australia, the big news is the Australia debut for former Singapore cricketer Tim David.

India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(wk), Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umesh Yadav.

Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Tim David, Matthew Wade (wk), Nathan Ellis, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

TOSS: Aaron Finch wins the toss and opts to bowl, no surprises.

06.26 pm: Let’s start off with a throwback. As India take on Australia in Mohali in a T20I... throwback to this stunning innings by Virat Kohli at the 2016 World Cup.

06.25 pm: Hello and welcome to the live coverage of the men’s T20I series between India and 2021 World Champions Australia, with the 2022 World Cup fast approaching on the horizon.

With the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup around the corner, India will aim to bounce back from their disappointing Asia Cup campaign (even if they insist it wasn’t all that bad) when they face Australia in a three-match T20 International series, beginning in Mohali on Tuesday.

India entered as defending champions at the Asia Cup recently but defeats in the Super Fours stage to Pakistan and eventual winners Sri Lanka meant they couldn’t reach the final. With the World Cup just weeks away, it was a less-than-ideal result for Rohit Sharma and Co and they will look to gain some much-needed momentum against the Aussies.

Read more in the preview hereRohit Sharma and Co eye much-needed momentum against T20 world champions

Screenshots in the blog courtesy bcci.tv / Disney+Hotstar