Australia pray against dead rubber

Match facts

March 30, 2014
Start time 1930 local (1330 GMT)

Big picture

Historically, few teams have been more ruthless in their demolition of the underdogs but, on Sunday, Australia will be rooting for the underdogs. For if Bangladesh don't beat Pakistan in the afternoon, Australia, who have lost two close matches out of two, will be out of the tournament, rendering their remaining matches inconsequential. It will also take out all the sting from what the organisers would have thought would be a top draw: India v Australia on a Sunday night with qualification implications aplenty.

For India, though, this cannot be a dead rubber even though they have become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals. India will dearly love to keep their unbeaten run intact, and end top of their group so that they face the second-placed team from the other group in the semi-final. Despite whatever is going wrong with their administration, the India cricket team has put up a great show so far. Theirs are the only bowlers, other than Nepal's, to have not conceded 140 in this tournament. They have got the right bowling mix for these conditions unless a team can take apart their quicker bowlers. They have not even lost a toss yet, which could have at least challenged their bowlers to bowl in the dewy conditions. To be fair to India, though, they haven't won any of these matches because the opposition had to bowl with the wet ball; dew has hardly been a factor in Mirpur so far.

Australia are one side that can dismantle the Indian bowling - they have done so in their last two World Twenty20 meetings with India - but will they struggle for that motivation and that edge if Pakistan have already beaten Bangladesh and thus knocked them out even before George Bailey walks out for the toss?

Form guide

(most recent first)
Australia LLWWW
India WWWWW

Watch out for

George Bailey's captaincy has come in for some criticism over the last two games, especially his failure to take the pace off the ball. When they failed to keep West Indies down in the second game, Shane Watson, who doesn't provide that much pace, bowled just the two overs for 11 runs. He will be watched closely in the match against India.

India have chased their three sub-par totals with ease, but Shikhar Dhawan's lack of form will be a bit of a concern for them. In New Zealand, he was allowed to cool his heels for one ODI, and he came back strongly in the Tests. Will India look to do the same now that the semi-final spot is sealed?

Team news

Australia might want to play two spinners at the same time, but then again India are hardly the side you want to expose them to.

Australia (probable) 1 Aaron Finch, 2 David Warner, 3 Shane Watson, 4 George Bailey (capt.), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Brad Hodge, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Brad Haddin (wk), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Doug Bollinger, 11 James Muirhead

India have no pressing reason to make a change except to give Ajinkya Rahane a look-in should he be needed in big matches later.

India (probable) 1 Shikhar Dhawan/ Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Yuvraj Singh/ Ajinkya Rahane, 6 MS Dhoni (capt. & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Mohammed Shami

Stats and trivia

• MS Dhoni has won 15 of his last 16 international tosses. The one match where he lost the toss was washed out.
• Every time Australia have scored 175 or more in T20s in Asia, they have lost.
• If he plays this match, David Warner will become the first Australian with 50 T20I caps.

"I wouldn't want to swim in a tsunami. I wouldn't want to challenge conditions. If we win the toss, we'll again bowl first if that is what is required."
R Ashwin clearly outlines what India intend to do if they win the toss

"[It's] not a weakness, because certainly spinners didn't get us out, we got ourselves out. So we've got some work to do in that area, but that's like every area: fast bowling, playing short-pitched bowling."
Darren Lehmann on Australia's batting against spin