India have now lost three of their last four matches while defending totals, and the victory had come against a tired Afghanistan team.
India’s bowling, which had hurt them in the losses to Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, once again looked lacklustre in Mohali, on Tuesday as Australia gunned down 209 with some ease, leaving 4 balls and 4 wickets in the arrears.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had conceded 19 runs vs Pakistan and 14 runs vs Sri Lanka in the two 19 overs, was again expensive in the death – against Australia, he was smashed for 16 runs in the 19th over and 15 runs in the 17th over. Harshal Patel, who is returning from an injury lay-off, was smoked for 22 runs in the 18th over.
Rohit Sharma is getting a lot of flak for his captaincy
Amid this, India skipper Rohit Sharma has been lambasted by fans who are trolling the five-time IPL winning skipper for his captaincy in these three losses.
Former India batsman Ajay Jadeja, though, reckoned Sharma was rendered helpless, and that the captain was left unable to do anything with such a bowling performance; Indian fielders also dropped two catches of Green and Smith, both of whom made significant impacts after being given a reprieve.
When asked where India went wrong in their bowling innings, Ajay Jadeja said that Australia dominated throughout their batting innings, and that it was difficult to point out one phase where the hosts went awry.
“I am trying to think of a situation where India had a chance, except for when Axar Patel was bowling. And he also didn’t bowl at a stretch. Except for those overs, there was no problem that Australia had. They didn’t even have to take any chances,” Ajay Jadeja told Cricbuzz.
Ajay Jadeja gives his comment after India’s loss
“India carried on with the plans that they had when they took those wickets and it just didn’t work. It’s really difficult to figure out where did we go wrong because throughout that innings, we went wrong. There is no one stage I can pick and say something could have been done differently.”
He added: “At the start maybe I would have pointed out bowling Axar Patel (as the problem) because the ball was seaming but he ended up with the best figures. He looked like he was playing a different game to the others. Chahal has had a few games where things haven’t gone his way. I feel for Rohit Sharma, everything he did was right, but Australia had an answer for everything.”
The second T20I is scheduled for Friday at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur.
