On Tuesday, the Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan went on to say that the loss of four quick wickets on both the sides of the 30th over was one of the crucial reasons behind India’s crushing 10-wicket loss to Australia in the first ODI in Mumbai. Dhawan went on to score 74 before India being bundled-out for 255 and then suffered loss as the Australian openers, David Warner (128*) and Aaron Finch (110*) helped them overhaul the target in just 37.4 overs.

Talking to the media persons after the game, Dhawan said, “We handled those first 10-15 overs very nicely. As I said that where we lost four wickets in a go, that is where the game changed for us, so that is where we went wrong. KL (Rahul) got out. We were targeting 300 runs but we ended up scoring fewer runs. In bowling, we could not take early wickets. They outplayed us.”

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Asked whether the Indian batting was too dependent on him, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Dhawan felt that it was just one bad day in office as apart from this game they have been playing quite well in recent times. Talking about Kohli’s decision to drop at no.4 position in order to accommodate two specialist openers both him and Rahul in the playing eleven, Dhawan said it was completely the skipper’s choice.

Dhawan further elaborated, “See that is a captain’s choice, KL is batting well, he did well in the last series and he played really well and he played well today. I feel it is the captain’s choice where he wants to play and he has done amazing at number three, maybe I feel, he will think about it to go at number three again. He’s a brilliant player and he has been performing consistently, doing really well so I’m sure that he will keep doing well.”

Shikhar also showered praise on David Warner, who played an unbeaten 128, and together with Finch stitched record 258 runs for the opening wicket to crush India.

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The Indian southpaw further explained, “Of course David is a world-class player and yes, once he’s set he takes the game away, that’s his ability. We were trying our best to get hold of him, unfortunately, we couldn’t. David and Finch both played very well. They’ve got good quality bowlers and they’ve got some decent pace as well and it’s a good challenge as well. Of course in the first 10 overs, Pat Cummins bowled a really good line and length. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any chance.”