What 58 balls vs Australia told us about India's T20 World Cup plan: Arshdeep perishable, spin is king, Samson confirmed

Daunting, isn't it? Indeed. Then what did the incomplete T20I against Australia tell us about India's T20I side that we already didn't know? Many things, actually. Here are the top five of them.

India will always field two specialist spinners: When India, the No.1-ranked T20I side, decided to play the most matches of the Asia Cup 2025 with just one specialist fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, who else? It was brushed aside as a condition-specific move, as Dubai and Abu Dhabi in September were always going to produce slow turners. But a placid track in Canberra broke that notion. India still played both Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav in their XI and picked Axar Patel as the spin-bowling all-rounder. What's more? They have another spin-bowling all-rounder in Washington Sundar sitting on the bench. This a clear giveaway that India would have plenty of spin in the middle overs, irrespective of the conditions and why shouldn't they when the two main bowlers are Kuldeep and Chakaravarthy?

Arshdeep Singh is perishable: It may be a real bitter pill to swallow but Arshdeep Singh's place in India's T20I XI doesn't seem to be guaranteed. The only Indian bowler to take 100 wickets in the format, he played only one match in the Asia Cup and was not included in the XI against Australia. Unless there was an injury, which wasn't revealed, there was really no reason to bench him and pick Harshit Rana.

Sanju Samson confirmed in the middle order: Another tough one, but it looks like the Indian team management will continue to back Sanju Samson in the middle order despite his dwindling numbers. Samson smashed three centuries batting at the top of the order, but due to the return of Shubman Gill in the mix, he has been asked to bat in the middle-order. This didn't bring a lot of success in the Asia Cup, but it appears that the Indian think tank will be patient with Samson and rightly so.

Suryakumar Yadav at No.3, Tilak Varma at No.4: During India's tour of South Africa last year, captain Suryakumar Yadav was happy to give his No.3 spot to Tilak Varma, who repaid the faith with a blistering century. While Tilak did get a few games at No.3 with great success, SKY has decided to go back to the top order. His disappointing numbers in the last few outings may have had a role to play. One generally doesn't have a batting position set in stone in this format but indications are that Surya will be at three and Tilak at four.

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