A series win already locked in the cupboard, India will target a series when MS Dhoni's men clash against Australia in the 3rd T20 at the SCG in Sydney on Sunday.
After three discouraging performances and one barely-comprehensible collapse, India have rolled to three consecutive wins, one in the ODIs and two of them in the T20s.
The last two wins have been as convincing as they come for India, with the batsmen putting up a big score and the bowlers, crucially, backing them up. In the ODI series, India could not put in one complete performance together, so to watch his team manage two of them in a row would have given MS Dhoni great satisfaction.
The key to India's fortunes in this T20 series has been the performance of the spinners. R Ashwin suddenly looks like a potent spinner again, Ravindra Jadeja has found his mojo in Australia and with Yuvraj Singh contributing with the ball as well, India have been able to choke the life out of the Aussie batsmen in those crucial middle T20 overs.
"All of a sudden the spinners are bowling well," Dhoni told reporters after India's win in Melbourne. "Not like they were bowling badly but we have to see the rule changes also. I think it is quite against the spinners [in ODIs]. I feel they will have to do something with the rules in one-day internationals. In T20 you have the five fielders outside throughout. You have that extra fielder. Let's see how it goes."
With Yuvraj doing his bit with the ball and Hardik Pandya showing some finesse bowling down those white cherries towards the batsmen as well, India suddenly look a lot more balanced, with or without the extra fielder in the deep.
The irony is that neither Yuvraj nor Pandya has really had a chance to make an impression with the bat, such has been the dominance of the top order. However, just having the security of two big hitters in Yuvraj and Pandya down the order, not to mention Jadeja as well, gives the top three of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli the freedom to go slam-bang from ball one.
While India have a settled lineup in this format, Australia haven't quite found their groove yet, even if that balance hasn't been helped by the resting of key players. Steve Smith, David Warner and George Bailey are on their way to New Zealand to prepare for the series there, while Aaron Finch will now miss the final game, and possibly even the World T20, with a hamstring injury.
As a result, Shane Watson will take over the captaincy duties in the final T20, which should be interesting. What Watson will want is for his bowlers to pick up a couple of early wickets to put the pressure on the India middle order, while the all-rounder will also ask more from his batsmen.
In the last two matches, Australia have got off to flying starts, only to throw it away when the India spinners have come on. Not allowing the slower bowlers to dominate will be key if Australia are to finish this fantastic-to-watch limited-overs series with a victory.
3rd T20: India vs Australia.
Date: Sunday, 31 January.
Time: 7.40 pm local time (2.10 pm IST, 8.40 am GMT, 3.40 am ET).
Venue: SCG in Sydney.
TV listings: India: Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD1, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD3.Australia: Channel 9. UK: Sky Sports1. USA: Willow TV. Middle East and North Africa: OSN Cricket. South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport.
