Steven Smith v MS Dhoni

There will be an interesting battle going on within the contest when Australia and India meet in two separate series of short-form cricket. The captaincy duel between Steven Smith and MS Dhoni will be an enthralling battle between two vastly different personalities.

Dhoni is an experienced leader with the glittering achievement of winning the World Cup and World T20 trophies. He's cagey and cool, in addition to being vastly talented with the bat, where he combines bludgeoning shots with deft touches and speed between the wickets to dismantle the opposition.

Smith, on the other hand, is a methodical captain but a batsman who can adapt to suit the situation, and he's not afraid to employ innovative shots to disrupt the opposition's field placings. He can be brave when required and is willing to accept challenges. He started out as a legspinner in Test cricket and has evolved into a high-ranking top-order batsman. He displayed early signs of his willingness to accept responsibility and challenges when he was asked to open the bowling for New South Wales against the thunderous Trinidad and Tobago batting line-up in the final of the 2009-10 Champions League.

In the upcoming contests in Australia, Smith has one big advantage over Dhoni: he leads the better pace attack. This could have been further emphasised if James Pattinson, the enforcer in the recent Test series, had been chosen for the games on the bouncy Perth and Brisbane pitches.

The captains occupy different positions in their respective batting orders and play vastly different roles for their team. As a top-order batsman, Smith has the opportunity to put a personal imprint on games by posting a large score. In Dhoni's case, his signature achievements involve guiding his team with a well-timed charge at the end of an innings. This affords him a greater chance to be there when victory is clinched. However, he's also not afraid to push himself up the order to have a greater influence on the game, as he did in India's World Cup final triumph in 2011.

The ability to post larger scores probably favours Smith but both batsmen are crucial to their team's chances of victory.

Dhoni tends to come alive as a captain when he's in charge of spinners who are controlling the game. This is when he's most comfortable in the leadership role. If the opposition dominates the Indian fast bowlers, then Dhoni has a tendency to sit back and wait for the batsmen to get themselves out, which is probably a legacy of playing on spin-friendly home pitches.

So far Smith has only captained ODIs in the shadow of Michael Clarke's leadership. It'll be interesting to see how he evolves as a short-form captain. He has one positive qualification in that he has done some bowling even if most of his recent trundling has been as a part-timer. As the great Pakistan leader Imran Khan once said: "To be a good captain you have to understand bowling."

Smith will be fine in Australia where good fast bowlers can help the captain dictate the early going in a match. His real challenge will come when he leads the T20 side in India, where the pitches are likely to assist spinners. His cause will be helped if the in-form and improving Nathan Lyon is in the squad.

Lyon was a surprise omission from the squad for the first two ODIs. While much of his improvement is down to him getting the ball to drift away from right-hand batsmen, he has also been encouraged by Smith to bowl more of a line outside off stump. Because of both changes to his method he is now passing and occasionally clipping the outside edge of the bat more often.

This is a battle of the heavyweights in all senses. The last World Cup winner versus the previous trophy holder. Like in any good heavyweight bout, the two captains will be testing each other out in the preliminary rounds with a series of jabs and feints, with Smith the more likely to land the knockout punch.