Australia drew first blood against India in the three match ODI series. The Aussies started out as favorites to win the first ODI and they delivered winning by 66 runs. India knows that they need to win the second ODI on Nov 29 in order to keep the series alive. Bookmakers have given Australia odds of 8/15 and India are once again the underdogs at 6/4.
Indian was outplayed in all three departments of the game at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). The second ODI will also take place at the SCG and Indian think-tank will have to come up with a better plan to stop this powerful Aussie team.
These are the areas that Team India will have to address before their match on Sunday.
Correct What Went Wrong
Indian captain Virat Kohli took to Instagram after the loss and posted a photo with the caption ‘On to the next one’. That’s a good attitude to have as no one wants to dwell on a loss and feel low when the next game is so crucial for India. However, Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli have adopted this philosophy of ‘On to the next one’ especially when they are on overseas tours.
India tends to lose more often when they play in overseas conditions and the ‘On to the next one’ mantra has been misused as it takes away the accountability factor from Shastri and to some extent Kohli.
There is not a lot of time to analyse what went wrong but that’s what Ravi Shastri and his team are paid for. They cannot sweep this defeat under the carpet and put it down to having a bad day. The bowlers looked toothless against the Aussie batsman and were unable to stem the flow of runs.
When you get a total in excess of 300 in Aussie conditions, it is always going to be tough. It becomes nearly impossible to win, when you let the Aussies post a score of 374. It immediately puts the Indian batsmen under pressure and in many ways makes the game a one sided affair.
Should The Bowling Line-Up Change
Shastri and Kohli need to make a decision as to whether the Indian bowlers had a bad day on Friday evening and play the same bowling line up again. This is going to be a big decision for Team India as playing the same bowling line-up again could result in the same consequences with Australia being able to pile on the runs.
Mohammed Shami looked the pick of all the bowlers and will retain his place in the side. J Bumrah went for over 7 runs an over but will likely retain his place in the side as he is just too good a bowler to leave out. N Saini went for over 8 runs an over and could be replaced with T Natarajan or S Thakur. India should definitely look at replacing Y Chahal who went for almost 9 runs an over with the left-arm wrist spin of K Yadav.
Will India Stick With The Same Batting Order?
It will be surprising if India decide to make changes to the batting line-up but they should think about changing the batting order. They should look to bring KL Rahul up the order and open with S Dhawan. Rahul is the vice-captain for this ODI series and is a lot more experienced than M Agarwal.
India needs a strong opening partnership to combat the pace of Starc, Hazelwood and Cummins. They can get M Agarwal to bat at 5 or leave him out and bring in the talented S Samson who can also keep wicket.
We will have to wait and see if Shastri and Kohli can come up with a plan to keep the series alive.
