Australia sealed the three-match ODI series against India with a game to spare after defeating the visitors by 51 runs in the second ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday. Australia completely outplayed the visitors in the opening ODI and the things weren’t different on Sunday. The Indian bowling in the two matches failed to pick wickets at crucial junctures, with Australia scoring over 370 runs on both occasions.
Virat Kohli’s leadership also has come under scrutiny, with former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir questioning some of the bowling changes made by the India captain. Fans too were not impressed and took to Twitter and expressed their frustration at India’s “bizarre” tactics under Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri.
In a video posted by ESPNCricinfo, Gambhir said, “I can’t understand the captaincy to be honest. We kept talking about how important it was to take wickets upfront, if you have to stop this kind of batting line-up and then you make your premier bowler bowl two overs. Normally, in a one-day game, probably there are three spells and you finish 10 overs — 4,3,3 — or probably the maximum is four overs.”
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He further added, “But if you stop your premier fast bowler just by bowling two overs upfront with the new ball, I can’t understand that kind of captaincy and I can’t even explain that captaincy. It’s not T20 cricket. T20 cricket is different and sometimes even in T20 cricket, people end up bowling three overs upfront. I can’t understand the reason to be honest, that was poor captaincy.”
Some angry fans also questioned the happenings in Indian cricket, they also blamed the combination of Kohli-Shastri combination. Many others tweeted that Rohit Sharma should be made the captain of the Indian team.
Virat is the best test leader that we have got and India will perform relatively better in the test matches without a doubt, but in Limited overs cricket, Indian team cannot compete with the likes of Australia and England at the moment.
— Aman Sinha (@amansinha07) November 29, 2020
First we need to kick Ravi shastri out of the team … With Kohli Shastri combination we are not going to win any major trophies..
— GEETHESH (@gmech54) November 29, 2020
If India need to change the brand of cricket, then remove shastri and bring in a foreign/sensible coach.
Enough of Kohli with Shastri🙏 #AUSvsIND
— ɯlse (@pitchinginline) November 29, 2020
Chota muh badi baat: Virat Kohli should leave captaincy and focus on his batting like Sachin Tendulkar did.
— Godman Chikna (@Madan_Chikna) November 30, 2020
https://twitter.com/jatinmsd/status/1333055103285088256?s=20
#AUSvIND
Bumrah Bumrah
under Kohli's under Rohit's
captaincy captaincy pic.twitter.com/Sxd8LpWue1— Aman (@Humourlessly) November 29, 2020
Virat Kohli has been struggling with his captaincy. His planning and strategies aren't working out well. He is failing to get the team motivated enough.#AUSvIND #INDvAUS #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/h51dcnJsk2
— Fenil Kothari (@fenilkothari) November 29, 2020
India’s tour Down Under started off badly, with the visitors completely outplayed in both the ODIs so far. Australia’s batting has stamped their authority, with the Indian bowlers were looking out of color more often than not.
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The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Yuzvendra Chahal conceded a lot of runs, while Navdeep Saini’s first outing to Australia has been a tumultuous one so far. India now take on Australia in the third and final ODI in Canberra, before the three-match T20I and a four-Test series.
