The mighty Australians outplayed India completely in the 1st ODI in all the 3 departments of the game in the most important series of this Indian home season. India lacked a game plan, vision and most importantly the hunger to win the game.
Here we look at the 3 things that India should do to overcome the loss in the 1st ODI:
Indian bowlers looked clueless to pick even a wicket in the 1st ODI as Australia chased down the target with 10 wickets in hand. The return of Indian spearhead and world’s No:1 limited-overs bowler JaspritBumrah looked rusty and was nowhere near to his best. Indian bowlers clearly lacked the plan to bowl to Aaron Finch as they were feeding him deliveries outside off where Finch is relentless. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for India in the 1st ODI as he troubled Finch big time and Warner to some extent but he didn’t have the able partner to apply pressure from the other end. India should play the successful combination of Kuldeep and Chahal together who could give breakthroughs consistently in the middle overs.
Navdeep Saini was the pick of the bowlers for India in the recently concluded T20I series against Sri Lanka. The lanky pacer even out bowled Bumrah in that series. His pace and accuracy were top-notch and Sri Lankans had no clue facing him. It came as a huge surprise when India went ahead with Shardul Thakur in place of Saini in the 1st ODI. The Delhi pacer can be the exact attribute who could cause much trouble to the Australian batters. His “hit-the-deck” ability in the middle overs can tie the opposition for nothing. India should play Navdeep Saini in the 2nd ODI at any cost.
The Indian skipper demoted him to accommodate the in-form KL Rahul in the team but it changed the whole dynamics of the batting order. India had a near match-defining partnership between Rahul and Dhawan but both threw their wickets in quick succession and as a result, India collapsed from 135-1 to 165-5. Anyone of the top 3 must take the responsibility and should stay till the end and allow the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishab Pant to play their natural game instead of expecting them to anchor the innings
Rajkot will host the 2nd ODI on Friday