🏏India tour of Australia, 2025: AUS vs IND,2nd T20I, Melbourne🏏

🏏India tour of Australia, 2025: Australia vs India, 2nd T20I at MCG, Melbourne on 31/10/2025 at 1:45PM IST🏏

As the 2nd T20I of the India Tour of Australia 2025 approaches, both sides are eager to make a statement after a rain-hit first match.

Australia boast strong form led by Mitchell Marsh, while India, under Suryakumar Yadav, look confident following their Asia Cup success. Dive into expert analysis, match predictions, and key player insights ahead of this thrilling T20 encounter.

When: Australia v India, 2nd T20I, October 31, 2025, 19:15 hrs Local Time, 19:15 hrs AEDT, 13:45 hrs IST

Where: MCG, Melbourne

What to expect: After a no result game in Canberra, signs aren't the brightest in Melbourne two days later. Ironically the Victorian capital has had flawless weather over the last two days but there's already been rain in the air on Friday morning with the clouds casting a very sombre look up in the skies. Most of the radars show the rains relenting post 5 pm, which could possibly allow for the match starting on time. Like in the last few summers, there'll be intrigue around how the pitch plays at the MCG, not just for the 40 overs here but for what it could mean for the rest of the season.

Preview by Bharat Sundaresan (credit cricbuzz)

It'll take something extraordinary for the focus to shift away from the extraordinary achievements of the Indian women's team overnight in Mumbai. But maybe a packed MCG with nearly 90,000 screaming Indian cricket fans might, at least for one night, garner some attention. Before understandably and deservedly the spotlight returns to the DY Patil Stadium as Harmanpreet Kaur, Jemimah Rodrigues and their spectacular team look to create history in the World Cup final.

This is not to say that there won't be a lot of energy and excitement around the second T20I of this five-match series later this evening in Melbourne. Even if a lot of chatter leading up to it will centre around Rodrigues and the way she got India home in the world-record run-chase. But after the disappointment from two nights ago where the opening match was rained off in Canberra, there is expected to be renewed vigour and noise around the MCG as the two best T20I teams in the world get ready for battle.

India have great memories of their last two visits to the 'G for a T20I. Though they polished off Zimbabwe in their most recent match here, in what was their last league encounter in the 2022 T20 World Cup; it was the one prior to that in the same tournament against Pakistan, which will be remembered foreverby those who were at Australia's hallowed sporting turf. When the 'G was as loud as it ever has been, even according to those who've witnessed dozens of AFL Grand Finals here.

There were signs even in the 9.4 overs of action in Canberra of why this Indian T20I team is probably the most exciting it's ever been in terms of talent alone. This will be the first opportunity for the likes of Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and the rest to showcase their wares at one of cricket's most iconic venues.

And for the Melbourne faithful to get a first-hand look at what makes them so genuinely exciting, especially if the weather does hold up.

Team News

Australia

Though there were some expensive overs in between rain breaks for most of the Aussie bowlers on show, there is unlikely to be any changes made from the XI that fronted up in Canberra with Josh Philippe to continue as a specialist batter.

Probable XI:Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Mitch Owen, Josh Philippe, Nathan Ellis, Xavier Bartlett, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood

India

Not for the first time, there will be eyebrows raised over the exclusion of Arshdeep Singh, India's most successful bowler in this format, in favour of Harshit Rana who adds some batting muscle to the lower-order. But India too will in all likelihood stick to the same combination from Wednesday night.

Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

In the spotlight: Tim David and Varun Chakravarthy

Like Ellis, Tim David has not played an international at the MCG. The one opportunity he has had so far was against England at the 2022 T20 World Cup but the game was abandoned without a ball being bowled. His BBL record at the ground is not too flash with 148 runs in nine innings. The average of 16.44 is his lowest at any venue he has batted more than five times in T20s. However, if there's ever a moment for that to change, it feels like now. David's move up the order - initially to No. 5 and now likely No. 4 in this series - has added a new level of dynamism to Australia's top order and allowed him to shape games over a longer period.

Australia's play against spin has improved, but it still feels like an area they could potentially come unstuck. Varun Chakravarthy is the No. 1 T20I spinner in the world but has yet to send down a ball against this opposition in the format; Canberra was his first match against them, although there have been head-to-heads in the IPL. It will be very interesting if he is used early against Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head. Chakravarthy removed Head when he was threatening a big innings in the Champions Trophy final earlier this year.

Pitch and conditions

This will be the first match the MCG has hosted for the season. "I feel like every Big Bash game has been 180-plus [totals] there and you had good value for runs, whilst being a little bit in it for the bowlers," Ellis said. The bowlers will need to adjust to some different dimensions. "It's bigger square, shorter straight, [Canberra] was longer straight, shorter square," he said.

Frustratingly, it may be another evening of looking skywards with a chance of showers through the day and a possible thunderstorm. October may not have finished gifting its rain-affected matches just yet.

Stats and trivia

• India have won four of their six T20Is at the MCG.
• Marsh needs four runs to reach 2000 in T20Is; Sanju Samson needs seven for 1000 runs and Tilak Varma needs 38 for 1000.
• Jasprit Bumrah needs four wickets to reach 100 in T20Is.

Quotes

"T20 cricket now, the bowling side of things, you're going to have a lot more bad days than good days. So [it's about] being able to not ride the highs and not ride the lows too much, but just learning and trying to do it better the next time you are put in that scenario."

Nathan Ellis on the challenges of being a T20 bowler

Big picture: A potential World Cup final?

It was a false start to the T20I series in Canberra as the rain swept in, but the second match in Melbourne has the makings of a memorable evening with the crowd approaching, or even surpassing, 90,000 as India return to a city where they attracted huge support both in last season's Test series and the 2022 T20 World Cup. That is, if the weather plays ball. It's a watching brief on that front.

With these two teams likely to be among the favourites for next year's T20 World Cup, there is a chance they could meet in the final at the only cricket ground bigger than the MCG - the vast Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad where Australia toppled the home side in the 2023 ODI World Cup final. That, of course, is for another day, and there are plenty of things that could get in the way for both sides, so for now it's about continuing the build towards the tournament.

However, the prospect of close to a full house at the MCG is exciting even for the Australia players. "It's an experience for the guys who haven't been there and done it," said Nathan Ellis, who has yet to play an international at the MCG, which hasn't hosted a T20I since the final of the last World Cup.

"I was just talking [to Marcus Stoinis] about the early days [in 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."