Australia vs India, 1st T20I takeaways: Dhawan’s class, Maxwell’s fight and early-tour blues

Marcus Stoinis performed vital roles with bat and ball as Australia drew first blood in the series against India by winning the first T20 international.

Batting first, Australia put on 158/4 in 17 overs. The innings was interrupted due to rain and India had to chase a D/L target of 174. They fell four runs short.

Here are a few takeaways from the game:

Maxwell’s fight

How often have we seen Glenn Maxwell throw it away? He walks in to bat, Australia are in a precarious position and what does he do... he throws it away. Usually one would point to his temperament and point out the problem but on Wednesday, he showed that is prepared to learn. He has been under pressure for a while now purely because of his shot selection. Against India, he was back to his vintage best. He took a while to settle in and only then did he get down to hitting the big shots. If he had fallen early, Australia would have been in a fair bit of trouble which is why his determination and fight would have been welcomed by Australia.

When Maxwell is in the zone, bowlers struggle because it is difficult to predict what shot he might play. He dealt only in sixes – hitting four maximums and no fours) and ran hard between the wickets. His partnership of 78 runs with Marcus Stoinis, which came in just 37 balls, set the tone for the innings before the rain came down. That was the crucial phase of the innings and one that eventually won Australia the match. Maxwell’s contribution was a vital 46 off 24 balls.

Dhawan, Karthik and the rest

The ease with with Shikhar Dhawan countered the pace and bounce on a quick Brisbane track showed that he relishes such conditions. It was a true pitch with not much lateral movement and it allowed him to hit through the line. The impressive part of his innings, though, was his timing. He didn’t seem to be striking it hard but it sure was going a long way. By the time, Dhawan was dismissed on 76 off 42 balls, India’s total was just 105. Numbers that tell us how big an impact he had in the early going.

Once Dhawan was dismissed, Dinesh Karthik spearheaded India’s challenge with a 13-ball 30. Still, he will give the decision to allow Krunal to take two runs off the first ball of the last over some serious thought. India needed 13 runs going into the last over and given how Karthik was hitting the ball, he should have fancied the strikes. Instead, he trusted Krunal and that didn’t go very well for India.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were not at their fluent best but given that the tour is just starting, they will have plenty of time to find their feet.

Fielding the difference

The Indian team has been setting high standards in the field for a while now but on Wednesday, they were poor by their own high standards. Kohli and Khaleel Ahmed dropped catches, there were misfields too. Australia dropped a catch too, with Zampa failing to hold on to a fairly simple chance off Shikhar Dhawan, but they just seemed to have more energy in the field, and were a little bit more desperate. Clearly, given their recent struggles, they wanted this win more than India.

Stoinis the all-rounder

Stoinis had a plan and he made it work. It would seem odd to give Stoinis the last over in a thriller but Aaron Finch trusted him and the all-rounder made it work. His slower off-cutters proved to be difficult to get away and his batting showcased just why he might be a key member of this Australian side come the World Cup next year.

As Finch put it after the game: “I was very confident that Stoinis would get the job done. He has been practising in the nets. His plans were clear and his execution was good. He is the one we wanted to do that job at the end. And he did it beautifully.”