Australia's T20I strengths and weaknesses
On Wednesday, India and Australia play the first of three T20s against each other. While India seem relatively settled, Australia is a team in disarray. This has been the case since the ball-tampering incident back in March.
Australia's form has suffered across all formats since then, with T20's being no exception. Australia have lost their last four T20Is, with their most recent win being against the United Arab Emirates.
The T20 format has rarely been Australia's best. They are yet to win the T20 World Cup and have often seemed to undervalue the format. This has been shown through the lack of T20Is Australia has at times played, but also through the teams that have been selected for these games.
Australia have in part continued this trend by resting some key players for the series, but in recent times they have started to respect the format more, and have subsequently been more consistent in their selections.
There is also a healthy amount of raw talent in the Australian squad. While it remains a far cry from the Indian Premier League, the growth of the Big Bash has certainly helped T20 cricket in Australia.
Players like D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, and Andrew Tye have gone from being fringe players for their state sides to stars for their Big Bash teams, and have helped bring Australian cricket out of the past, where T20 cricket is seen as a second or even third rate format.
The culmination of the unrest around Australian cricket and the talent flowing from the Big Bash leaves the Australian side looking like the T20 equivalent to Frankenstein's Monster.
In their team they have the potential to threaten India. However, they also have weaknesses that the Indian team could exploit to devastating effect, causing further embarrassment for the already red-faced Australians.