NEW DELHI: Shubman Gill will be eager to turn his fortunes around with a big knock as a confident India look to take a 2-1 lead against a depleted Australia in the fourth T20 International at Carrara on Thursday.

With the five-match series level at 1-1, India will fancy their chances against an Australian side missing two key players. The absence of Josh Hazlewood in the previous game hurt Australia's defence of a competitive 186, while opener Travis Head will also be unavailable for the fourth T20I as he joins South Australia in the Sheffield Shield to prepare for the upcoming Ashes.

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For India, this presents the perfect opportunity to gain the upper hand before the series finale at the Gabba. The visitors appeared to have found a balanced combination in the last match, particularly with the inclusion of an all-rounder at No. 8 providing much-needed depth.

However, one lingering concern for the team management remains the form of skipper Shubman Gill, who has now gone six innings without a fifty. His scores across formats on this tour - 10, 9, 24, 37*, 5, and 15 - reflect a lean patch for the opener, whose only fluent outing came in Canberra, where he shared a promising stand with Suryakumar Yadav.

Gill has been troubled by fuller deliveries with a hint of movement and throughout the better part, he hasn't exactly looked in the regal touch which has made him the player that he is.

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At the other end, Abhishek Sharma has done his reputation no harm as the world's No. 1 T20 batter with a fine half-century and two quick starts in the series. However Gill, who will have to switch on to the red ball mode in a week's time, will certainly get a lot of confidence if he gets some runs irrespective of the format he is playing.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav has shown some glimpses of his vintage self in the first and third matches with two good starts. But he would also like to get some runs under the belt now that there will be a month-long break before the next series against South Africa.

In between, one would expect Suryakumar to play Mumbai's Ranji Trophy game against Puducherry.

The bowling department, with the inclusion of Arshdeep Singh, looks way more compact even as Kuldeep Yadav has been sent back to prepare for the Test series against the Proteas. The team management's main issue has always been that both Kuldeep and Arshdeep can't be played together.

If Kuldeep plays in these conditions, then Harshit Rana, with better batting skills, needs to be fitted in.

When Arshdeep plays, they have to somehow get a Washington Sundar inducted and one saw the result as his 23-ball 49 decisively swung the third game in favour of India.

The Australian side will depend a lot on skipper Mitchell Marsh and Tim David for the firepower in batting. With no Head in the line-up, Marsh might have Matthew Short as his opening partner.

However, it is the bowling department where Australia need to do some rejigging as Sean Abbott certainly didn't look the part and one among Ben Dwarshuis or Mahli Beardman might just come in his place.

Teams (from):

India: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar,

Australia: Mitchell Marsh (captain), Matthew Short, Josh Inglis (wk), Josh Phillippe (wk), Mitchell Owen, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Kuhnemann, Adam Zampa, Mahli Beardman, Benn Dwarshuis,Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Marcus Stoinis.

Match Starts at 1:45 pm.

(With PTI Inputs)