India will be looking to inflict insult on Australia ahead of the Ashes when the two teams face off in Brisbane in the last game of the five-match T20I series
on Saturday.

India are 2-1 ahead going into the final match, and if they win, they will keep intact their record of not losing a T20I series in Australia since 2007-08.

The Aussies, on the other hand, will be desperate to avoid a hat-trick of losses. After the first match was washed out by rain, the hosts won the second handsomely. But thereafter, successive defeats have embarrassed them.

Of course, they can argue that they have a depleted team with some of the frontline players not available as they are preparing for the Ashes. But then, it’s a home series and, more importantly, it’s the result that counts in the end, while the background is hardly remembered.

A series loss will also surely dent their psyche ahead of the Ashes, though the formats are different.

India, however, will have their own checklists to focus on. The T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in India (and Sri Lanka) next year and this series against the mighty Australians will definitely be one of the key milestones on the road to the mega event.

The biggest gain for Team India in this series has been the performance of their bowlers, especially the spinners. The trio of Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy and Washington Sundar have excelled in their roles, spinning a web around the bamboozled Aussie batters.

Though the conditions in the last two matches aided the spinners somewhat, overall, the Australian pitches are certainly not spin-friendly. The way the Indian spinners have mastered the tricky, hostile conditions, the team management will definitely be hopeful of an even better show from them on helpful tracks in the subcontinent in the World Cup next year.

But that’s one half of the story. The bowlers’ brilliance will not be able to push the batters’ vulnerability under the carpet.

India, on paper, have an extremely strong batting line-up. From the explosiveness of Abhishek Sharma and captain Suryakumar Yadav, to the utility of Tilak Varma and certainly the assurance of Shubman Gill — it is a batting group of dreams.

But not all of the batters have managed to give their best in the series so far. Captain Surya’s form has been the biggest concern, while Abhishek has also been quite timid by his standards.

The pitch at the Gabba will be testing both the batters and the bowlers on Saturday. It is expected to offer pace and bounce. So the Indian batters will have a hard time against the home pacers, while the visiting spinners will also have to make special plans to have success on such a track.

The Indian team will take the ground with extra confidence knowing that even if they lose Saturday’s game, they will not lose the series. In other words, they will go all out for a win.