India suffered a huge eye-opener by Australia in the first ODI of the three-match series at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on January 14. Aaron Finch’s team stunned the world by thrashing the men in blue by 10 wickets — Australia’s biggest ever ODI win over India, by a margin of wickets.
The Indian team will be looking to make a strong comeback in the second ODI and stay alive in the series by winning the second ODI in Rajkot on Friday. However, former England skipper, Michael Vaughan reckons there is a weakness in Team India which needs to be addressed if they are to win the ICC World Cup 2023 at home.
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Vaughan took to Twitter ahead of the second ODI and said he was interested in seeing how India would respond after the crushing defeat. Vaughan said that India had “underachieved” in the last two World Cups, adding: “They lack power for me in the engine room,the middle order,they have 3 yrs to make sure they can keep up the tradition of the hosts winning !”
Interested to see how #India responds in the 2nd ODI.If they are honest they will accept the last 2 World Cups they have under achieved !!They lack power for me in the engine room,the middle order,they have 3 yrs to make sure they can keep up the tradition of the hosts winning !
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) January 17, 2020
During the first ODI, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli to came down teh order so that both Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul could be accommodated in the playing XI. There had been a lot of buzz ahead of the series as to who will open for India along with Rohit Sharma. While Rohit is a sure-shot for one of the opening slots, the other position was expected to be filled either by Dhawan or Rahul.
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India decided to open with Dhawan with Rahul coming in at one-down and skipper Kohli dropping to number 4. Both Rahul and Dhawan looked in decent touch and added 121 runs for the second wicket. However, a batting collapse saw India being bowled out for 255 in 49.1 overs.
Australia captain Aaron Finch and David Warner both hit fantastic centuries to put up the highest Australian partnership against India as they chased down the target with 12.2 overs to spare and all their wickets intact.
