India won the toss and elected to bowl against Australia
Australia resisted recalling vice-captain Tahlia McGrath and veteran quick Megan Schutt with the team unchanged for the second T20I against India in Canberra.
Australia are under pressure as Sophie Molineux seeks a first victory as captain with the home side desperate to draw level in the multi-format series.
Molineux’s captaincy reign started shakily after Australia were completely outplayed in a rain-affected opener in Sydney. In their first T20I in almost a year, Australia made bold selection calls after omitting McGrath and Schutt.
Allrounder Nicola Carey played her first match since December 2022, but made just 12 at No.7 and conceded 15 runs from her only over.
Australia will be aiming to rebound quickly in a bid to avoid their first bilateral series defeat on home soil since 2017.
India can claim an unassailable lead in the T20 leg of the multi-format series. Their only previous bilateral series victory in Australia came in 2016 when they triumphed 2-1 in the T20Is.
The teams have played just once before in a T20I at Manuka Oval with Australia winning by 4 wickets in February 2020. Balmy conditions are expected through the night fixture after warm weather in Canberra during the day.
Australia: 1 Beth Mooney, 2 Georgia Voll, 3 Phoebe Litchfield, 4 Ellyse Perry, 5 Ash Gardner, 6 Georgia Wareham, 7 Annabel Sutherland, 8 Nicola Carey, 9 Sophie Molineux (capt), 10 Kim Garth, 11 Darcie Brown
India: Smriti Mandhana, 2 Shafali Verma, 3 Jemimah Rodrigues, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Richa Ghosh, 6 Deepti Sharma, 7 Amanjot Kaur, 8 Arundhati Reddy, 9 Kranti Gaud, 10 Sree Charani, 11 Renuka Singh