Rohit Sharma’s Men in Blue suffered their first ODI series loss of 2023 as Australia cruised past India by 2-1 in the 3-match Mastercard ODI series yesterday at the Chepauk Stadium in Chennai. Unlike the 2nd ODI loss at Vishakhapatnam, India produced a fighting performance but lost the match by a margin of 21 runs.
A lot of questions are being raised around the team’s Batting order which was not good enough in front of an outrageous Baggy greens bowling attack. The middle-order woes for India are not coming to an end and an ODI World cup win will not be possible with a similar outlook of the team.
This is India's 3rd ODI series loss at home since 2013
3-2 vs South Africa in 2015
3-2 vs Australia in 2019
2-1 vs Australia in 2023#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/cCIfFobOyo— 12th Khiladi (@12th_khiladi) March 22, 2023
Yesterday, India also had tweakings in their respective batting order as Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya had come to bat before Surya Kumar Yadav. Captain Rohit Sharma provided his opinion about the change and said – “KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were batting. They were operating against a leggie and a left-arm spinner.”
Rohit Sharma further explained the situation and said that the right-handed batters were struggling due to the turn and thus a lefty batter (Axar Patel) was promoted up the order.
Suryakumar Yadav walks to the dugout after being dismissed by Ashton Agar in third ODI vs Australia.© AFPIndia player Suryakumar Yadav is definitely not having the best of times. The batting star scored three consecutive golden ducks in India's # # # #https://t.co/hF5qD9AZsH
— Sportsninja.in (@Sportsninja777) March 23, 2023
“Surya was slotted to actually go at 5. But, we thought that the ball was taking some turn and we did not want the right-handers to get stuck. Which is why we wanted a left-hander and Axar, being in the form he is, we wanted to just ask him to go in and bat the way he does and take the spinners on.”
Mitchell Marsh top-scored for the tourists before spinner Adam Zampa took over with the ball and claimed 4 Indian wickets to bowl out the host team for 248 runs in 49.1 overs, causing Australia to be bowled out for a total of 269 in 49 overs.
India defeated the tourists by 5 wickets in the first ODI of the series at Mumbai’s renowned Whankede Stadium. At the YS Rajasekhara Reddy Stadium in Vishakhapatnam, however, the Australian team, headed by Steve Smith, pulled one back with a commanding 10-wicket victory to tie the series and send it to the decisive game in Chennai.
