India vs Aus: T20 match in Sydney to be played in front of packed stands

The upcoming T20 series and Test series of India against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground could be played in front of spectators as the state of New South Wales looks to ease the COVID-19 restrictions.

The venues for 20-over matches are the same and the teams are well-versed of the grounds. Australia will hope to play to a full house against India in their Twenty20 match next week as crowd caps lift in the country's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW).

According to a report in Reuters, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that outdoor stadiums will be permitted to operate at 100 per cent capacity.

“What we’ve tried to achieve here is a healthy balance of giving people freedom and allowing businesses to flourish, while also maintaining those basic principles of living in a Covid safe way,” she was quoted as saying by Reuters.

After a disappointing result in the ODI series, Virat Kohli and co will now face Australia in a three-match T20 series beginning from Friday. The visitors lost the first two ODIs but managed to win the third against the hosts on Wednesday.

It will be for the fifth running year that the two rivals will battle in a T20I series. The last time India faced Australia Down Under, the three-match series ended in a draw 1-1.

INDIA SQUAD FOR T20

Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan