The visitors had a disappointing start to the Australia series as they lost the first T20I match. The first of the three-match T20I series was held at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Having been given a target of 174 in 17 overs in a rain-curtailed game, India managed 169 for 7. The second T20I will be played on Friday in Melbourne.
The Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and put the hosts to bat first. They scored 158-4 in 17 overs, courtesy of Glenn Maxwell’s 24-ball 46, Chris Lynn’s 20-ball 37 and Marcus Stoinis’ 19-ball 33.
Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers as he got two wickets for 24 runs. After the rain intervened, India were given a target of 174 in 17 overs as per the Duckworth-Lewis Stern Method.
Kohli (4) and Rohit Sharma (7) got out cheaply while Shikhar Dhawan scored 76 off 42 balls. Dinesh Karthik made some efforts with 30 off 13, but it was not enough. Adam Zampa took two wickets and was named Man of the Match.
Although the Indian fans were heartbroken, former Indian opener Virender Sehwag was at his humorous best. The 40-year-old tweeted that despite scoring more, India lost the game.
He humorously said that the “GST” added to the Australian score proved costly for India. Sehwag nevertheless hailed the match as a “thrilling game”. The tweet received almost 30k likes.
India scoring more than Australia yet losing. Australia ke score par laga GST bhaari pad gaya. But a good thrilling game to start the series.#AUSvIND
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) November 21, 2018
After the T20I series, India will then play a four-match Test series, followed by a three-match ODI series. India had won the previous bilateral T20I series against Australia by a margin of 3-0.
But as they have now lost the first match, Kohli will not be able to match former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s record. However he can still win the series and make it three out of three wins this year.