LIVE INDvsAUS 1st T20I: Richardson, Cummins hold on to clinch a last-ball win for Australia

The limited-overs series against a struggling Australian side will be India's last international assignment before the mega event starting May 30 in England and Wales

The Indian cricket team is all set to kickstart their last limited-over series against Australia with the first T20I on Sunday at Vishakhapatnam. The seven-match series comprising two T20 Internationals and five ODIs against a struggling Australian side will be India's last international assignment before the mega event starting May 30 in England and Wales.

Kohli is back after a well-deserved three-week break and will be keeping a keen eye on the likes of Rishabh Pant and Vijay Shankar, two players who are strongly tipped to make the elite list.

For Vijay Shankar, it will be a great opportunity to make his case even stronger in the absence of Hardik Pandya, who is out with his recurring lower back injury. He has shown that he could be explosive with the bat and the question will be how effective he can be with the ball. 

With the return of Bumrah, the bowling department that distinctly lacked sting against New Zealand will be bolstered. He is two shy of his personal tally of 50 wickets in T20I cricket, an achievement only in possession of the discarded Ravichandran Ashwin.

While rookie leg-break bowler Mayank Markande is in the squad, India in all likelihood will go with the tested pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and Krunal Pandya, who have done reasonably well for the home team in recent times.

However, the shortest format is exactly not the one where India have been very consistent. A recent 1-2 series defeat against New Zealand is a testimony. India may be ahead 11-6 on head-to-head in T20s but they have drawn 1-1 their last two series against Australia -- at home (2017) and away (2018) —with rain playing spoilsport.

It was way back in 2016 when India under MS Dhoni last won against Australia, a 3-0 clean sweep Down Under as this time Kohli's men will look to settle the scores with a 2-0.

But more than that, the series will be a dress rehearsal for the World Cup as Kohli would look like to make a final assessment before heading to World Cup in May.

Squads

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (v-c), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Krunal Pandya, Vijay Shankar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Sidharth Kaul, Mayank Markande.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), D'Arcy Short, Pat Cummins, Alex Carey, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa.