The third ODI of the between Australia and India will be played tomorrow in Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Australia has won the last two ODIs in Perth and Brisbane. In both One Day matches Australia have chased down record 300 plus score. Rohit Sharma scored his second consecutive hundred, but Australia once again chased down India’s score. Indian bowlers could not defend the total.
India, batting first, scored 308 in the Brisbane ODI, which felt was short of at least 30 to 40 runs. Rohit Sharma scored 124.
The new year has started on a wrong note for India as batsmen easily scoring big total on board but, blowers are leaking as many runs as a batsman are scoring. The home side did not face any hindrance from Indian bowling. The Australian batsmen made Indian pacer look pedestrian.
India’s last couple of matches against South Africa at home and against Australia in away series reminded us about the ear of Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy when Indian batsmen used to score big total but generous Indian bowlers were not up for the challenge to defend the hard work done by batsmen.
Resembling that ear captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s bowling department have been proved toothless in the home series against South Africa and now in the away series against Australia. India’s traditional weak zone bowling in the absence of injured Mohammad Shami lost the sharpness.
In comparison to Australian bowling attack, who altogether did not play as much match as Mitchell Johnson, doing quite well in the flat Austral pitch. But, in contrast, to them Indian bowlers Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and the spin duo are much better experienced and have good experience of playing on Australian soil. In the last two matches their bowling visibly lacks variations as a result they were too much predictable for Australian batsmen.
Meanwhile, Australian pitches these days have become where bowlers get a little assistance. During the Test series between Australia and New Zealand Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor scored 166 and 291 respectively in reply to David Warner and Usman Khawaja’s 253 and 121.
India must change their strategy for Melbourne ODI. With bowlers leaking too much runs, India must elect to bowl first if MS Dhoni wins the toss again in the series as it will ease batsmen’s job in case bowlers do not go for 330 plus runs.
Talking about the playing XI, India must shuffle their cards. On the batting front, out of form Shikhar Dhawan must be dropped and Rahane should be asked to open the innings. In place of Dhawan, India should bring in Rishi Dhawan (I know that won’t happen, going by MS Dhnoi’s comments about the player) in the middle order. Rishi can also help Dhoni with his medium pace at the big “G”.
With India losing last two matches, Dhoni has to ask part-time bowlers Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had to roll their hands to cover the quota of Ashwin and Jadeja in the Perth ODI and in the Brisbane ODI Umesh Yadav’s. Meanwhile, India doesn’t have a good option to change the bowling attack, so there will be no change in the bowling department.
However, India taking a cue from the last two ODI must bounce back in the series and keep the excitement float till the end of the series. A good performance also needed for a psychological boost before the T20 series.
Predicted XI:
India: Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Manish Pandey, Rishi Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Barinder Sran.