Australia Tour of India ODI 2020 – Betting Tips and Preview

January 2020 promises to be a busy month for the Indian National Cricket Team, as the men in blue set to welcome Australia for a 3-match One Day International Series. It is going to be a cracker of a tournament, with the two sides sharing quite an intense rivalry spanning across decades. The ODI series will start on Tuesday, January 14, with the last match to be played on Sunday, January 19. In this article, we will give you the latest betting tips and predictions so you can get your cricket betting game on point.

1st ODI Review – A Learning Lesson for India

India’s glaring defeat to Australia in the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai revealed a lot of fatal flaws for the host side. Even though the rivalry between the two sides has been rather intense, this match was on an entirely different tangent.

Choosing to bowl first after winning the toss, Australia found themselves in a rather tricky situation for the first 25 overs. Despite getting an early wicket of Rohit Sharma, the visitors faced a lot of difficulties in breaking the partnership of Shikhar Dhawan and Lokesh Rahul. They didn’t get a breakthrough until the 27th over when Ashton Agar finally got the wicket of Rahul. From 134-2, the boys in blue went down a rickety road which brought them to 164-5 by the end of the 33rd over.

Some resistance in the end by the hosts saw them take the score to 255-10. Even though it is a respectable score, the Aussie opening pair of David Warner and Aaron Finch made little work of it. The duo got off to a blistering start and moved on to score a century each, to win the match by 10 wickets. What’s more impressive is that the pair achieved the target of 256 runs by the end of the 38th over.

This humiliating defeat for India may prove to be a blessing in disguise. After all, this current squad is largely untested against the big giants like Australia. After playing weaker sides such West Indies and Sri Lanka, it appears that the team is becoming rather complacent and lacks the urgency and competition. Meanwhile, for Australia, it is a good sign and clearly proves that their team is heading in the right direction.

2nd ODI Preview – A Must-Win for the Hosts

The series is on the line here but more than that, it is a matter of pride for the Indian National Cricket Team. Losing a home series to their fierce rivals is not the way to start the year, especially with a New Zealand series right around the corner.

The second ODI will be played in Rajkot, at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. The average 1st innings score at the venue is 297 – a number for Australia which, by the looks of it, is very easy to achieve. The stadium has hosted only two ODIs in the past and India has never won either of them.

For India, the key here will be to introduce some discipline in the bowling. In the previous match, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Shardul Thakur went for an economy rate of over 7.00. From a batting perspective, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will need to step up.

Tournament Facts

This is the first time the Aussie contingent are traveling to India since the 5-match ODI series in March 2019. The Kangaroos won that series by 3-2, impressively enough after losing the first couple of matches.
Prior to that, India went to Australia in January and ended up conquering the cricket scene there with a 2-1 series win.
India and Australia were also among the heavy-favourites to reach the final of the 2019 ICC World Cup. However, both of them lost in the semis New Zealand and England.
Looking at the overall head to head record, the two teams have played 137 ODI matches. Australia have won 77 of those while India have been victorious only on 50 of those occasions.
In 2019, India played 29 one day matches of which, they lost only 8. Interestingly, half of those came against Australia.
By contrast, Australia played just 23 50-over matches in the year and won 16 of those. It is worth mentioning that of the 7 defeats, 5 came at the hands of the Indian team.

Tournament Schedule

January 14, Tuesday: 1st ODI, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

January 17, Friday: 2nd ODI, Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot

January 19, Sunday, 3rd ODI, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

India’s Recent Form

The Indian team began their 2020 campaign on a promising note with a 2-0 T20 International series win over their neighbours Sri Lanka. Led by Virat Kohli, the lads in blue put up a highly convincing performance in the matches, bolstered further by the presence of home crowd. It was a show of pure domination and in many ways, a strong message for the visitors.

After the first T20 was abandoned due to rain, they played the second one in Indore where the hosts won the match by 7 wickets. The third T20I in Pune was pretty much along the same lines, with this time, India batting first and sealing the series with an incredible 78 runs win.

Since the end of the World Cup, India have played only five ODI matches, all of them against West Indies. The two nations visited each other for two series and the end result, as expected, was a win for the Indian team. They lost only one ODI match – a home defeat in Chennai by 8 wickets. Currently ranked at the 2nd position in the ICC ODI rankings, they will be eager to reach the top once again.

Indian Squad

The following players have been selected to play against Australia in the upcoming series. The contingent will be led by Virat Kohli as usual.

Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), K. L. Rahul, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav

Rohit Sharma finds his place in the team once again, following the selectors’ decision to include him in the series. His last ODI series was against West Indies in December, where he scored 63 runs and 159 runs remarkably in two matches.
Sharma also has a good record against Australia. In the 37 ODI matches he has played, he has scored over 2,000 runs at an average of 62.
From a bowling point of view, the Indian side is fielding a young, slightly inexperienced line-up.
Ravindra Jadeja is among the few players to have played over 30 ODI matches against this side, and has taken 23 wickets.
Shami and Yadav have not played more than 15 matches against the Aussies, and have each taken 18 and 16 wickets respectively.

Australia’s Recent Form

Australia haven’t played an ODI match since their uneventful exit at the hands of England in the World Cup semifinal last year. Since then, they have been involved in a litany of test matches and T20 Internationals. Primarily, they have played against the likes of England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and New Zealand.

It is perhaps, owing to the lack of exposure to ODIs that the Aussies have slipped to the 4th place in the rankings. Nonetheless, the tournaments where they did play, they managed to put up a good show. This includes a 3-0 rout over Sri Lanka in T20 Series, and a 2-0 commanding win over Pakistan in T20I and Test series.

Most recently, they played New Zealand in a 3-match Test series which, rather impressively, ended in a 3-0 loss for the Kiwis. Australia heavily dominated all the three matches, winning them by at least 240 runs.

Australian Squad

Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc, wk), Pat Cummins (vc), Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Steve Smith and David Warner will add a significant boost to their ODI hopes, especially having served their one-year bans from international cricket.
A slight dearth of experience can also be seen in the attacking line-up.
In terms of bowling, Starc and Cummins will be leading the way, with Kane Richardson set to play a critical role too.
The decision to note include Nathan Lyon in the squad is interesting, especially given his terrific performance in the New Zealand Series recently.

India vs. Australia Betting Tips

This is going to be a massive tournament for the two teams, but more so for the Aussies. They will be eager to redeem themselves and take back the crown they once had on the international stage. With a fairly experienced and strong team, they will travel to India and hope to give the boys in blue a run for their money. We can expect to see several epic battles, as their past matches have been. Our prediction for the series is 2-1 to India.