IND Vs AUS ODI series review: And the invincible run finally comes to a shuddering halt. After a frankly ludicrous run of 26 consecutive home series victories, India finally tasted defeat on home soil against a professional Aussie side who took care of business in a game they had no right to be winning. The win also marks the first time Australia won a series against India in India, way back in 2019.
While not taking away any credit from the Aussies in the way they performed after that capitulation at the Wankhede, the Indian side will be pretty disappointed with the way they let the deciding game slip from them in a matter of few overs and a host of poor shot selection.
Here are three reasons why India ended up losing the IND vs AUS series despite winning the opening game-
1. Lack of basic game awareness
In the series decider today at Chennai, India seemed to be in a position of strength after losing openers Gill and Rohit in quick succession. Both Virat Kohli and Kl Rahul steadied the ship and were cruising at one stage. At 146-2, it seemed like India had this in the bag. Even after Rahul departed, Hardik Pandya and his aggressive intent made sure that India sill had the upper hand.
But what followed was absolutely horrendous. Kohli lost his wicket to a shot that was not needed at all during that stage. Hardik perished trying to loft one out of the park, and even Jadeja departed trying the same. The dismissal of Kohli was a huge surprise because you don’t expect a player of his experience attempt such a shot, especially after he was let off the hook twice before finally perishing. This game sense is the margin between a win and loss, and sadly that was lacking by the Indians
2. Suryakumar Yadav’s horror show in the IND vs AUS ODI series
This was a critical series for the Mumbai batter. With Shreyas Iyer out for the series and his return uncertain at best, this series was the perfect opportunity for SKY to make the number 4 position his own with a couple of eye-catching performances. While the performances were eye-catching, they were for all the wrong reasons as he was dismissed for a golden duck in each and every innings he batted.
This is as humiliating as it can get for an international batsman. While he was done in by searing Starc in-swingers in the first two games, he was deceived in flight by a fuller one from Ashton Agar. This series is definitely one to forget for SKY, who has not been able to figure out the longer format of the game.
3. India’s struggles with left arm pacers
Another team and another episode of Indian batters taken to the cleaners by a left arm pacer. In the first two games, Mitchell Starc absolutely terrorized the Indian top and middle order with his devious pace, seam and swing. The Indian batsmen could just not get to terms with his menacing spells and willingly gave their wickets away to him. This has been a recurring problem for Indian batters.
The likes of Boult, Shaheen Afridi, Obed McCoy and now Starc have all time and again bamboozled our batsmen and they still seem to have no answers against similar style of bowlers. This is a very worrying trend and if this is not corrected then we are in for a very long home world cup this year.