India's Final Dress Rehearsal for the World Cup Begins

Kohli returns from a break to take up the reins; Australian players primed after meaningful BBL action.

- Kohli returns from a break to take up the reins; Australian players primed after meaningful BBL action

It is worth asking what purpose T20 matches will serve when a team has only a handful of competitive international fixtures left ahead of a 50-over World Cup.

India's home limited-over series against Australia — which begins with the first of two T20s here on Sunday and will be followed by five ODIs — is its last scheduled engagement before the side heads to the UK in May.

In between, players will be involved in the IPL, but that may hardly be classified as preparation. There is, simply, no great context to these games.

All that, however, will hardly dampen the enthusiasm of the thousands who will pour into the ACA-VDCA Stadium for India's first home match of the year. This is a team that has returned from a lengthy tour of the Antipodes with its reputation greatly burnished.

That historic Test series triumph in Australia had lifted the confidence of the side, Virat Kohli said on Saturday, instilling the belief that anyone could be beaten anywhere; Indian crowds will hope to be able to see some of that spirit over the next three weeks.