Schedule for India-Australia ODI and T20I series announced

What's the story?

Australia's limited-overs tour of India which begins on September 17 in Chennai will last till October 13. The visitors will play five ODIs and three T20Is on the tour.

BCCI finally confirmed that the series will begin in Chennai before moving to Kolkata, Indore and Bangalore with the final ODI to be played in Nagpur on October 1 through a media release on Thursday. The T20I series looks set to begin in Ranchi on October 7 with the second game to be played in Guwahati on October 10 and the series coming to an end on October 13 with a game in Hyderabad.

In case you didn't know...

Australia toured India earlier in the year for a four-match Test series that they lost 2-1. Despite winning the Pune Test and ending India's unbeaten run that stretched from 2015, the visitors ended up losing the series 2-1 after drawing and losing two of the final three Tests.

The heart of the matter

India will come into the series on the back of a 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the ODI series that helped them close the gap on second-placed Australia in the ODI rankings. They are behind Steve Smith's side on only decimal points and know that a series win could propel them to the No.1 spot in the ODI rankings.

Australia, who have lost both their last two tours to India in ODIs, will be looking to put their disastrous Champions Trophy campaign on the back of their minds as they begin on the path that will take them to the defence of their World Cup crown in England in 2019.

Here is the complete schedule:

17 September – 1st ODI, Chennai

21 September – 2nd ODI, Kolkata

24 September – 3rd ODI, Indore

28 September - 4th ODI, Bangalore

1 October - 5th ODI, Nagpur

7 October – 1st T20I, Ranchi

10 October – 2nd T20I, Guwahati

13 October – 3rd T20I, Hyderabad

What's next?

After whitewashing Sri Lanka 9-0 across all three formats, India will look to continue that run against Australia in the ODI and T20I series. The visitors, on the other hand, will look to make a seamless progress to the shorter formats after their two-match Test series against Bangladesh finished 1-1.

Author's take

After their impressive display against Sri Lanka away from home, India showed that they are in red-hot form. Following their defeat to Australia in the ODI series in January 2016, they are yet to lose a bilateral ODI series, having beaten Zimbabwe, New Zealand, England, West Indies and Sri Lanka.

They will look to keep that going while Australia will be looking to rewrite the record books, having not beaten India in a bilateral series in India since their 4-2 triumph in 2009.