David Warner

Reportedly the stump microphone picked up the remarks, which led to the ICC reprimand of the veteran Australian cricketer, who is likely to step down as captain after the T20 World Cup at home, beginning on October 16. Australia had lost the opening game of the three-match T20I series by eight runs here on October 9.

In a highly competitive field of nominees, Rizwan emerged triumphant after a remarkable spell of scoring throughout September, and sees him overcome Australia fast-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green and India's left-arm spin all-rounder Axar Patel for the prize.

Adrian Luna's opener and Ivan Kaliuzhnyi's brace in the second half were enough to secure a 3-1 win for the Blasters. On the other hand, Alex Lima was on the scoresheet for East Bengal FC. Both teams had opportunities to break the deadlock in the first half. In the seventh minute, Alex Lima cut onto his left foot and attempted to place the ball into the bottom left corner.

Australia won the opening match against the Caribbean side by three wickets in Gold Coast on Thursday with Green scoring just 14 as opener. Clarke, a member of the ODI World Cup-winning side in 2007 who later led Australia's victorious campaign at the 2015 event at home, indicated Cricket Australia's (CA) selection was going awry ahead of the T20 World Cup at home.

India play their first match on October 23 at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground against arch-rivals Pakistan. This is the most crucial match for the Indian side as a defeat in it could put them in deep waters to qualify. The main rivals, thereafter, are South Africa, Bangladesh and possibly the West Indies, if they qualify from their group games.

In fact, even if they make a clean sweep of the three-match series here and also win the ODIs against England at home and the two games remaining from their suspended home series against the Netherlands, it is unlikely they will be able to automatically qualify for the showpiece event.

Marcus Stoinis, Richardson and Agar re-join the squad for the England Series and the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. Swepson and Ellis have been added to the squad for the opening game against England in Perth as selectors continue to prepare for the World Cup at home.

Captain Finch's surprise demotion down the order paid off as the home team chased down the target of 146 with just a ball to spare. Chasing a modest target, Australia didn't have a smooth sailing. They lost the wickets of David Warner, Green, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Tim David were dismissed inside the first eight overs of the innings.

"To be honest, it (being upstaged by Kohli and Rohit in leading T20I run-getters list) doesn't really bother me too much. My primary focus is to contributing to wins for New Zealand. As long as I can do that, other things take care of themselves. As long as I am contributing to the team and able to score runs, I am happy with that," said Guptill to IANS, in an interaction organised by Amazon Prime Video.

India head coach Rahul Dravid had his say on the side departing early for Australia, explaining that being based in Perth will help the team adapt to the pace and bounce offered by the pitches in Australia, especially with nearly half of the side not having played a T20 game in the country before.