After losing the three-match ODI series against the hosts India, despite once leading it by 1-0, Australian limited-overs captain Aaron Finch praised the top-two ranked ODI batsmen, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Australia won the first ODI at Mumbai in a dominating fashion by ten wickets. However, the hosts made a strong comeback after winning the second game at Rajkot by 36 runs. On Sunday (19th January), India won the final ODI of this series at Bengaluru by seven wickets, and eventually won this series 2-1.
Chasing down the 287-run target, Indian opener Rohit and captain Kohli controlled the innings very well which led the hosts to the comfortable victory. The limited-overs vice-captain Rohit scored 119 runs off 128 balls (8 fours and 6 sixes), and Kohli played the knock of 89 runs off 91 balls (8 fours).
Virat Kohli is probably the greatest ODI player of all-time – Aaron Finch
Finch believes that the No.1-ranked ODI batsman Kohli is the greatest ODI player of all-time. Meanwhile, he also thinks that Rohit is among the top five batsmen of all-time.
Finch said in the post-match press conference, “They’ve got Virat who is probably the greatest ODI player of all-time, and Rohit who’d probably be in the top five batters of all-time. They’re exceptional, and the thing with the Indian side at the moment is their experienced players are getting the job done in the big games.”
While the Indian team missed out the in-form Shikhar Dhawan‘s batting in the Bengaluru ODI due to an on-field injury, Rohit and Kohli’s dominance made that blow ineffective.
Finch added, “Rohit’s 100, especially without Shikhar there tonight, for them to shuffle and their two most dominant players to still get majority of the runs is a sign of a really settled and really quality top-order.”
Aaron Finch pointed out their weakness
Despite leading this series after winning the first ODI, the Australian team suffered the series defeat. Talking about this ultimate result, Finch pointed out their lack of depth in the batting order.
He said, “In the last two games we have had the bowlers batting for the majority of the last few overs. Which we saw in Rajkot the damage that KL (Rahul) could do in the back end because he was a settled batter. I think that’s an area we just missed a couple of tricks. Just not having an in batter being in and having faced 20 or 30 balls to get us deeper and get us to the back end.”
Finch also credited the Indian pace bowlers. He feels that India’s death-overs bowling was exceptional in the last two games. Finch praised Mohammed Shami‘s yorkers and Navdeep Saini and Jasprit Bumrah‘s impressive bowling performances.
He added, “But credit to India, their death bowling in the last few games was exceptional. (Mohammed) Shami was nailing his yorkers, (Navdeep) Saini in the last two games and (Jasprit) Bumrah. In both games they were exceptional. You can look at where we could have improved but also you’ve got to give some credit to India.”
Earlier, Finch won the toss in all three ODIs of this series. But unlikely the last two games, he decided to bat first at Bengaluru, and it didn’t work for them.
Finch claimed, “It probably played a little bit slower than we expected. It looked like it was really hard. It was probably just a little on the dry side. But it was a damn good wicket, it probably spun a bit more than we expected it to.”
The Men in Blue will fly to New Zealand for their month-long tour. The series will get underway with the first T20I on Friday (January 24).