And so, here it is the last game in Group 1, a straight knockout match between India and Australia. Its a do or die match for both these teams, and will be the eliminator that will decide who advances to the semi-finals with New Zealand already having secured their berth. Both lost their opening games of this tournament to New Zealand. Both beat Pakistan. And both scraped home against Bangladesh, though not without some palpitations. Now, 12 days after the tournament proper began, the parallels will end, with one of these teams to move through to the semi-finals.

Not that everything has been the same for these two teams. India’s selectors have stuck firm throughout the tournament, using the same 11 players in every match so far. Australia have made changes in every match and have used 14 of their 15 squad members, with fast bowler Andrew Tye the only man yet to be chosen.

Australia were similarly unsettled when these two teams met in a three-match series in Australia in January, India using only 11 players (the same 11 from this World T20) and Australia trying a whopping 19 different men. There’s flexible and then there’s frantic, and it’s not clear which Australia have been in T20 cricket recently. They lost all three games to India in that series, yet have done enough to get themselves one match from a World T20 semi-final.

The last time India played at home to Australia in a world event was the quarter-final of the 2011 World Cup, when MS Dhoni’s men triumphed in Ahmedabad. They went on to win that tournament at home, one of the greatest moments in Indian cricket. If they are to repeat that success in the World T20, they must first get through this quasi quarter-final.

Handling spin has never been a strength of Australia’s, and Ravindra Jadeja will turn the ball away from a batting order heavy on right-handers. Jadeja is India’s leading wicket taker in this tournament (though with only four to his name that may not be saying much) and will hope to find whatever turn there is in a Mohali pitch expected to be on the slow side.

James Faulkner occupies an extremely important role for Australia in this tournament, his batting key during the late stages of an innings and his bowling offering an important point of difference, as Australia’s only left-arm seamer. His use of the slower ball earned him a five-for against Pakistan, and at the same venue he would be dreaming of the same kind of performance against India.

Squad:

India- 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Yuvraj Singh, 8 Ravindra Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Ashish Nehra

Australia- 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 David Warner, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Shane Watson, 7 James Faulkner, 8 Peter Nevill (wk), 9 Adam Zampa, 10 John Hastings/Nathan Coulter-Nile, 11 Josh Hazlewood.