🏏India tour of Australia, 2025: AUS vs IND,3rd T20I, Oval🏏

🏏India tour of Australia, 2025: Australia vs India, 3rd T20I at Bellerive Oval on 02/11/2025 at 1:45PM IST🏏

India are set to take the field at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart with several questions hanging over their team selection. Suryakumar Yadav’s side was tormented by Josh Hazlewood in their previous T20I in Melbourne, a game that once again exposed the main weakness that has bugged India in recent times: their choice of playing XI.

Playing on a lively track at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, India went in with Harshit Rana batting at No. 7, no Arshdeep Singh in the line-up, and three spinners in total. This was in sharp contrast to Australia, who used just two overs of spin in the entire match and unleashed their battery of fast bowlers on the Indian batting line-up.

Big picture: India will want to show their versatility

Relax, India. Your most relentless tormentor has left the building. Josh Hazlewood, perhaps the most influential player on either side during the ODI series and the first two T20Is, has turned his attention to preparingfor the Ashes.

Australia are 1-0 up with three games to go, but they suddenly don't look like the same bowling team anymore.

They will, however, welcome back Glenn Maxwell, who joins the T20I squad after recovering from the fractured wrist that has kept him out of action since mid-September. His return brings a new dimension to Australia's line-up, particularly with the bat, and particularly against India's spinners.

It's hard to say how much learning either of these teams can take from this series with the T20 World Cup in February-March in mind. That tournament will be played in India and Sri Lanka; conditions will be entirely different to those we've seen in the early part of this Australian summer, with levels of seam movement and bounce that are seldom to be found anywhere in the world in white-ball cricket.

For all that, though, India want to be an all-weather T20 team; on the evidence of the second T20I on Friday, there are still gaps to plug, with bat as well as ball. There were times at the MCG where they looked, both on paper and in the field, like an XI assembled with Asian conditions in mind.

Over the next three matches, India will want to show they have the versatility to win consistently even in these conditions -- no matter how similar or dissimilar they may be to what they get at the World Cup.

In the spotlight: Maxwell and Samson

The last time he played for Australia, Glenn Maxwell won them a T20I against South Africa in a manner only he and a handful of others can, from 122 for 6 in a chase of 173. That, though, was his first half-century in 11 T20I innings. That's what you get from a player of Maxwell's high-wire game. His T20 numbers against India's wristspinners show a similar boom-or-bust tendency: a strike rate of 165.30 against Kuldeep Yadav, but also five dismissals in 49 balls, and a strike rate of 151.51 against Varun Chakravarthy while being dismissed five times in 33 balls. Whatever happens in this contest, you can be sure it will entertain. Maxwell will have a role to play with the ball too, possibly even with the new ball against Abhishek Sharma, even if teams are quickly finding out that a number of left-hand batters, Abhishek among them, are getting increasingly adept at taking offspin apart.

Sanju Samson has been trying to adapt to an unfamiliar role at No. 5 or 6 in India's T20I line-up ever since Shubman Gill's return squeezed him out of the opening slot. He got the opportunity at the MCG to bat in the more familiar environs of No. 3, but his innings was shortlived, undone by a Nathan Ellis in-ducker that exploited his tendency to hang back and get stuck on the crease even against fullish lengths. If India have continued to back him ahead of Jitesh Sharma, it's partly because of his strong record against pace. Samson has certainly got the attacking game when he's in; he will, however, have to bat on pitches where sometimes he'll have to survive one or two overs before he gets to unleash.

Team news: Will India bring in pace-bowling support?

Who replaces Hazlewood in Australia's attack? Sean Abbott, who will himself leave the squad after the third T20I, seems the likeliest candidate, although Australia could potentially throw a surprise at India by handing the West Australian tearaway Mahli Beardman (who has, along with Maxwell, joined the squad) an international debut. Maxwell, who has recovered from his wrist fracture, will likely replace either Mitchell Owen or Matthew Short in the middle order.

Australia (probable): 1 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Tim David, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Mitchell Owen/Matthew Short, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Sean Abbott/Mahli Beardman, 11 Matt Kuhnemann.

Mahli Beardman was an Under-19 World Cup winner in 2024•Gallo Images

India tend not to make too many changes to their T20I XI when series are still alive, but they might be having discussions around the balance of their team after how Friday's game went. Do they view Shivam Dube as a viable bowling option in these conditions, and if not, could a specialist finisher in Rinku Singh, a batter with more pace-hitting pedigree, serve them better? And are two frontline seamers enough on these early-season Australian pitches, with or without Dube chipping in with a few overs?

India (probable): 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Axar Patel, 7 Shivam Dube/Rinku Singh, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Kuldeep Yadav/Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.

Pitch and conditions: Early season, lower totals

Hobart can produce high-scoring games as well as low-scoring games, as its last two T20Is suggest. In February 2024, Australia beat West Indies in a match where both teams passed 200. Then, in November, Australia bowled Pakistan out for 117 and romped to victory in 11.2 overs.

The timing of those matches may have had something to do with how they panned out. Four T20Is played in Hobart in January and February have produced an average first-innings total of 190, while nine completed T20Is in October and November have produced an average first-innings total of 148. Could these lower totals be down to early-summer juice in the pitches? Or do they just reflect the quality of the teams that batted in those games? Or is it all just randomness? And will it have any bearing on Sunday?

A mostly clear day is expected, with evening temperatures cooling from the mid 20s to the low 20s.

Stats and trivia: Samson, Tilak, Abhishek and David near 1000 T20I runs

• Sanju Samson needs five runs to become the 12th India batter with 1000 T20I runs. Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma, who have played 31 and 25 T20I innings to Samson's 43, need 38 and 64 runs to get there respectively.
• Tim David is 50 runs away from the same landmark
• Glenn Maxwell is one wicket away from 50 in T20Is, and Marcus Stoinis is three wickets away ().
• Jasprit Bumrah is two wickets away from 100 in T20Is. Arshdeep Singh (101) is the only India bowler to have got to that mark so far.
• India have a positive win-loss recordagainst all T20I oppositions. Against Australia so far, they've won 20 and lost 12.
• India have never played a T20I in Hobart.

Venue Stats - Bellerive Oval, Hobart (2022-2025):

Average 1st Innings Score:

2022 - 142.2

2023 - 160.2

2024 - 160.4

2025 - 170.0

Bowling Averages and Economy Rates:

Fast Bowlers – Average – 24.60; Economy Rate – 8.18.

Spin Bowlers – Average – 26.79; Economy Rate – 7.60.

Wickets Percentage based on Innings:

Team Win Percentage when Batting First - 30.7%

Team Win Percentage when Batting Second - 69.3%

Wickets Per Innings:

First Innings – 6.93 wickets

Second Innings – 5.36 wickets

Wickets per Phase:

Powerplay (Overs 1–6): 1.75 wickets

Middle Overs (Overs 7–15): 2.62 wickets

Death Overs (Overs 16–20): 2.04 wickets

It has gotten easier to bat at the Bellerive Oval with the tiny boundaries, the average first innings score here is up to 170 in 2025, up almost thirty runs from 2022, where it was just 142. There is a significant advantage in chasing at the venue, with 70% of the games here won by sides that happen to bat second.

These are cold conditions which have largely rendered spin ineffective, where the pacers average 24.6 per wicket while the spin bowlers have averaged 26.8, and have played a better holding role, going at 7.6 an over.

AUS vs IND Probable Best Performers of the Match

Probable Best Batter - Suryakumar Yadav

Suryakumar Yadav. (Photo source: BCCI)

Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav could be the key batter in this encounter. He found his rhythm in the rain-affected first T20I but could not make an impact in the second game. With the series on the line, the dynamic top-order batter will be eager to play a match-defining knock and guide the Men in Blue to level the series.

Probable Best Bowler - Nathan Ellis

Nathan Ellis. (Photo Source: Santanu Banik/MB Media/Getty Images)

The right-arm pacer Nathan Ellis could be the key bowler in this contest. With Josh Hazlewood unavailable for the upcoming T20Is, Ellis will be expected to step up and lead the Australian pace attack. His spell during the powerplay will be crucial, and his deceptive slower deliveries in the death overs could prove decisive in turning the game in Australia’s favour.

The India vs Australia T20I 2025 series moves to Hobart for the 3rd T20I that will be played at the Bellerive Oval on Sunday. With Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the third T20I against India, the Indian batters will breathe a sigh of relief.

Hazlewood troubled the Indian batters in the 2nd T20I with pace and bounce with only Abhishek Sharma coming out with something positive from the 2nd match. With the bowler rested for the upcoming Ashes series, the hosts will look to Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, and Sean Abbott, for wickets.

India could turn to Arshdeep Singh, who's omission in the second match, left many fans scratching their heads. The Bellerive Oval is known to produce batting-friendly pitches so expect another high-scoring affair, where length and placement will be key.

The Bellerive Oval at the Hobart is one ground where the side boundaries are smaller in size and hence the length would be paramount considering anything short would be flying over cover, point, square leg or mid-wicket on either side of the fence.

Bellerive Oval is the ground where the phenomenon of Virat Kohli as a champion ODI batter took shape back in 2012 when he played a masterful knock of 133 not out in 86 balls against Sri Lanka in a chase of 321. Bellerive Oval track has traditionally been a belter for white ball games.

This is also the BBL home ground for pacer Ellis, who happens to captain local franchise Hobart Hurricanes.