Some of Australia’s emerging white-ball superstars are set to be tested in front of the biggest crowd they have played in front of, with a sold-out MCG clash with India shaping as a potential World Cup final dress rehearsal.
Even the return of Oasis to these shores after a two-decade absence cannot top cricket’s own rockstars, India, playing a T20 at Australia’s premier sporting venue. The MCG could welcome as many as 90,000 fans on Friday evening at the same time as the Gallagher brothers play the first of three shows in front of around 55,000 across town at Marvel Stadium.
Australia are wary their bigger playing surfaces and bouncier pitches are a world away from the venues they will need to conquer at February’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Yet, their contest against Suryakumar Yadav’s red-hot side in Melbourne will be as close in atmosphere to a cut-throat tournament clash on the subcontinent as a bilateral match can be. Organisers are hoping the forecasted rain holds off.
The only bigger ground in cricket capacity-wise is in Ahmedabad, where the Aussies famously turned the tables on India in the 2023 ODI World Cup final.
The Narendra Modi Stadium again looms as the likely host of the biggest game at the ICC’s upcoming T20 tournament. It would not be a surprise to see the ICC’s two top-ranked T20I sides facing off in a major final there again in a few months’ time.
Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh with the 2023 ODI World Cup trophy in Ahmedabad // ICC/Getty
Given the bulk of patrons on Friday will be wearing blue and cheering for visiting stars like Jasprit Bumrah and Shubman Gill, the match looms as an ideal tune-up for what awaits Australia if they progress to the knockout stages of the World Cup and face co-hosts India.
Only four members of the 2023 ODI title-winning side played in Wednesday’s BKT Tyres series opener in Canberra, where Suryakumar and Gill fired a warning shot with a series of blazing strokes before the match was washed out.
Tim David and Nathan Ellis have played almost 100 internationals between them, but, remarkably, none have come at the MCG. The venue has not hosted an international T20 since the 2022 World Cup final.
“It’s an experience for the guys who haven’t been there and done it,” said Ellis, who has played just 12 of his 45 games for Australia on home soil.
“I was just talking to ‘Stoin’ (Marcus Stoinis) about the early days (of 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.”
The likes of Ellis and David, the pair who have arguably become the Aussies’ most important T20 players with bat and ball respectively, are hardly likely to be overawed.
David has played 302 T20s around the world including finals of major domestic leagues in the United Kingdom, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, while making his name at two of the IPL’s most storied franchises, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Ellis, another white-ball specialist with 169 T20s to his name, has likewise built a strong bank of experience in the biggest short-form tournaments.
Australia will also be eager to see how less-experienced limited-overs prospects like Matthew Kuhnemann, Xavier Bartlett, Mitchell Owen and Josh Philippe handle the intensity of a packed stadium.
The first T20I washout at Manuka Oval appeared head towards a runs-fest with India on track to top 200 and the hosts backing themselves to chase it. Ellis expects more big-hitting encounters for the rest of the series.
‘We can score anything’: Australia’s gung-ho Powerplay approach
“I think that’s the way T20 is going,” he said. “People are looking for 220-plus and working back from there, depending on the facilities. (The washout) felt like it was heading that way.
“… my experiences on the MCG in the last few years have been great. 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.
“I’m hoping it’s something along those lines. With the two batting lineups coming up against each other, I’m expecting a high scoring affair.”
Both Australia and India have pulverised their competitors since the last T20 World Cup in 2024.
Mitch Marsh’s men have lost just two of 20 T20s since their group-stage exit in that tournament. Over the same span, India have gone down just three times in 28 games and won last month’s Asia Cup.
Suryakumar’s men hold the bragging rights over the Aussies given they knocked them out of that Caribbean tournament in a Super Sixes game, before going on to lift the trophy.
That defeat in St Lucia was a watershed moment for the Australians, who have since committed to a more aggressive outlook with the bat, especially in the Powerplay overs. No team in the world is now going as hard as Marsh’s men.
They insist that approach must remain adaptable.
“We had a bit of a disappointing last World Cup,” wicketkeeper Josh Inglis told Fox Cricket on Wednesday.
“We’ve definitely spoken about our style of play and how we want to go about it. We’ve seen a bit of a switch around that with our batting unit, and with our bowlers as well.
“(The next World Cup) is always in the back of your mind, we know it’s coming up. We’re using these series to try different combinations and try to really nut out our style of play.
“(Their approach) is going to be conditions based. We know we may play some games in Sri Lanka, and Colombo might offer some different wickets to, say, Mumbai or Delhi.
“What we speak about is … not being reckless, it’s reading the conditions.”
Ellis suggested there has been less of a team-wide shift from a bowling perspective.
“It’s probably more individualistic,” he said. “Not wanting to speak for the batters, because I’m not one, but it looks like they’re taking a team approach and coming about it in a certain way, which is bloody exciting.
“I think the power of our bowling stocks is how individual we all are. You have me and Josh Hazlewood in the same fast bowlers’ meeting, but we couldn’t be more different.
“So I think playing to our strengths and being empowered to do what we do well as individuals (is important). To have the full confidence to be able to do that, that’s one of the main things.
“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.”
Australia v India T20Is 2025
October 29: First T20I v India, Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7:15pm AEDT
October 31: Second T20I v India, MCG, Melbourne, 7:15pm AEDT
November 2: Third T20I v India, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 7:15pm AEDT
November 6: Fourth T20I v India, Gold Coast Stadium, Gold Coast, 7:15pm AEDT
November 8: Fifth T20I v India, The Gabba, Brisbane, 7:15pm AEDT
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott (games 1-3), Xavier Bartlett, Mahli Beardman (games 3-5), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis (games 4-5), Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood (games 1-2), Ben McDermott (standby player) Glenn Maxwell (games 3-5), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe (wk), Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Tanveer Sangha
India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar
