Who: Australia vs India
What: Second T20 international of five-game series
Where: Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne, Australia
When: Friday, October 31, at 7:15pm (08:15 GMT)
How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 5:45 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Australia and India will try again on Friday in the second T20 international of their five-match series after the first match was rained off on Wednesday.
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The Indians, the number one-ranked T20 side and World Cup holders, have a strong record against the Australians, who are ranked second in world cricket.
Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the second match of a highly anticipated series that is part of the build-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup.
What happened in the first T20 of India’s tour of Australia?
The first game of the series was abandoned after 9.4 overs the India innings, after they were put in by Australia. Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav and opener Shubman Gill lit up what play there was with the former hitting two fours and a six in the final three deliveries before the rain ended the game.
Those strikes propelled Suryakumar to 39 off 24, while Gill struck 37 off 20 with the pair sharing their unbroken partnership of 62 in 5.9 overs.
What is Australia’s form ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup?
Australia have an unbeaten run in their last eight T20 bi-lateral series, of which they have won seven.
The last four series have all resulted in wins. Both stats are their longest streaks in cricket’s shortest format.
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What is India’s form ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup?
India go one better than Australia, with a nine-series unbeaten run in bilateral T20 matches.
The Indians have won their last six in a row.
How did India win the last T20 World Cup and where is the 2026 edition?
India beat South Africa by seven runs in the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup, which was staged in the United States and the Caribbean.
The Indians eliminated Australia, in the last T20 meeting between the sides prior to this season, on their way to lifting the trophy. Mitch Marsh’s side were dumped out at the Super Sixes stage by India’s 24-run win against them in Saint Lucia.
The 2026 stage will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8, with the final being played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Stat attack – Australia vs India
Prior to this series, India had won seven of the last eight T20 matches against Australia – including the last three games.
Australia’s home form does not make for pretty reading either, having never won a series consisting of more than one match on their own soil against India.
India have also won the last three bi-lateral T20 series against Australia, home and away.
Is Melbourne the biggest cricket stadium in the world?
The MCG clocks in at a staggering 90,000 capacity but it is not the biggest in world cricket. That title goes to India’s Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which holds 132,000. By comparison, Lord’s Cricket Ground in United Kingdom, regarded as the most famous cricket venue in the world, holds 31,100.
Are tickets still available for the second T20 between Australia and India?
The second match of the series has been a complete sellout for some time. Limited tickets are available for the final three games of the series in Hobart, the Gold Coast and Brisbane.
Are Australia and India competing with Oasis in Melbourne?
Brit-pop band Oasis are performing in Australia for the first time in two decades at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Friday night, which makes the sellout at the MCG even more remarkable. It is, however, widely expected that the sea of blue supporting India will far outweigh the home following in green and yellow.
What have Australia said ahead of the second game with India?
Despite having played nearly 100 internationals between them, Tim David and Nathan Ellis are both in line to make their first appearances at the famous MGC on Friday,
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“It’s an experience for the guys who haven’t been there and done it,” said Ellis.
“I was just talking to ‘Stoin’ [Marcus Stoinis] about the early days [of the BBL] where the Melbourne Derby would get 90-odd thousand and he was saying how exciting it is and how cool it is, running us through his experiences there.
“So really excited to play in front of a huge crowd at MCG, it’s an exciting prospect. A few of us have had that one in the calendar for a little bit.”
What is the schedule for the Australia-India T20 series?
- October 31: Second T20I vs India, MCG, Melbourne
- November 2: Third T20I vs India, Bellerive Oval, Hobart
- November 6: Fourth T20I vs India, Gold Coast Stadium, Gold Coast
- November 8: Fifth T20I vs India, The Gabba, Brisbane
Australia team news
Australia are likely to name the same team that starting the abandoned first T20 international of the series.
This is the last game Josh Hazlewood will be available for in the series, while Sean Abbott has one more to come. The pair will then both play Sheffield Shield (first-class) matches before lining up against England in the Ashes Test series starting in November.
Cameron Green sits out the entire series to focus on the Ashes, while Adam Zampa is absent due to paternity leave.
Pat Cummins misses the series with a back injury and has also been ruled out of the first Test against the English.
Glenn Maxwell is recovering from a broken wrist but is set to take Hazlewood’s place after the second match while Ben Dwarshuis, who is also returning from injury, will take the place of Abbott. Mahli Beardman will also join the squad after this match as a reinforcement for the squad and could be in line to make his international debut.
India team news
India are also set to name the same side that was named for the first T20 international.
Jasprit Bumrah returned to the India squad for the T20s, having missed the ODI series.
Nitish Kumar Reddy was named in place of the injured Hardik Pandya for the tour, the only change to the squad that was named for September’s successful Asia Cup campaign. The fast-bowling allrounder was subsequently ruled out of the first three games of the series with a left quadricep injury.
Predicted Australia starting lineup
Mitchell Marsh (captain), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wicketkeeper), Tim David, Mitchell Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Philippe, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood
Predicted India starting lineup
Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah