🏏India vs Australia, 5th T20I: Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru 🏏
India are set to face Australia in the final t20I of the ongoing five-game T20I series 2023 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today.
With the series already secured, Team India will aim to conclude on a positive note before the upcoming T20Is against the hosts, South Africa.
On the other hand, Australia finds themselves in a position with nothing to lose. Matthew Wade and his team will be eager to depart from Indian soil on a triumphant note.
India and Australia find themselves on a very similar path. They've been on the field just four days after a draining - both physically and emotionally - ODI World Cup final and yet have had to find takeaways and tick boxes with eyes set on the next big event in less than seven months' time.
The wounds of the final were still perhaps fresh for Suryakumar Yadav when the two teams attempted to hastily turn the page over and kick on in search of a fresh start towards glory.
He said it as much: "It is difficult. It will take time. I mean, it can't be that you get up the next morning and you forget everything that happened."
The absurdity of playing cricket so soon after such a fixture was not lost on Australia either. They afforded rest to some of their stars - as did the BCCI - while a few others were allowed to head back home midway. Mitchell Marsh, who got to skip the series, was rather vocal about the situation, while speaking to SEN radio in Australia.
"Yeah it was pretty outrageous for the guys that had to stay behind. It's a fine line because we've got to respect the fact we're playing for Australia and it's a series against India, which is always huge. But there's also the human side of it, the boys have just won a World Cup and probably deserve to celebrate for a while and get home to their families. It's an interesting one. You'd hope there's not too many of those series put on after big tournaments again."
This is the last of the five T20 cricket matches in the series.
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