Australia head coach Andrew McDonald sees the upcoming T20I series against India as a key test for his team’s new explosive batting style, which has been effective in recent months.

Under Mitchell Marsh, Australia have adopted a more attacking approach after back-to-back group-stage exits from the last two T20 World Cups. This change has brough them great success so far, with series wins coming against the West Indies, South Africa, and New Zealand.

The Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian team will enter the five-match series on the back of a near-flawless run in bilaterals and Asia Cup 2025 triumph. The Men in Blue have top-ranked T20I batter Abhishek Sharma, bowler Varun Chakaravarthy in their ranks.

“There has been a shift. We’re 11 games in now from the initial conversation. When we set out on this journey, we’d failed in a couple of World Cups previously, so we wanted to shift and stretch the boundaries on what we thought we could do."

“So yeah, we have been more aggressive, we’ve played people in different positions. Tim David has batted a little bit higher than previously. Our admission was that we haven’t been successful in a couple of campaigns. We’ve got to change things up. We’ve got to stretch ourselves."

“Is it the style that can win a World Cup? We believe so. Will we have to pivot and nuance it slightly, depending on whether we’re in Colombo or Delhi or Kolkata? There’s no doubt about that."

“You’re playing against India, so it’s a really good test on whether this style will hold up. They’re the number-one ranked team in the world, I think we’re number two. We’re excited to test ourselves against the best."

“Those younger players that have got some opportunity, what better opportunity than to play against the best team in the world and stand up in that environment," McDonald was quoted as saying to reporters in Canberra on Monday (October 27).

Australia are also trying out options to replace Mitchell Starc in the pace attack, with Nathan Ellis as the designated death-overs specialist and several players vying for supporting roles.

McDonald expressed excitement about developing the next crop of bowlers. “We’re gathering information around what that next crop will be. We’ve been so stable with Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood in white-ball formats. So to see Ellis shape as a frontline bowler, how we use him, to see Xavier Barlett, Sean Abbott now gets a little bit more runway in terms of pressing his claims as well, then Mahli Beardman joining us in the middle of this series is exciting. We’re excited by that next crop," the coach added.

(With inputs from Agencies)