So, India promised much but delivered little at the WACA, Perth. At 149 for 1 at the end of 30 overs, with their most dangerous batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at the crease, one would have expected the Indians to notch up a much bigger total than the one they ended up with – 309 on a batsman’s pitch was never going to be enough.
The problem is that India simply do not have the bowling attack to stop the opposition from scoring more than them, especially one as strong as Australia. No matter what the likes of Kohli, Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane put up, it almost looks certain that Steven Smith and Co. would be more than up to the task of going one up over that.
The only way for India to win a cricket match on this tour of Australia, it seems, is to win the toss, put the Australians in to bat first and hopefully restrict them to a score of 300 or less, and then trust their much vaunted batting line up to get them over the line. So, Dhoni would clearly be looking to win the toss and put the Aussies in, but that’s leaving a lot to chance.
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India certainly cannot afford to lose tomorrow’s match in Brisbane, as going 2-0 down so early in the series would leave them with a real mountain to climb. They will want Rohit Sharma to carry on as he always has against the Australians. Rohit has the best record any batsman has had against the Aussies, having made four big hundreds against them, with an average of 68.46 in just 19 innings.
His 171 not out in Perth, albeit made in a losing cause, was the biggest knock ever made by an opposition batsman against Australia in Australia. But obviously, Rohit can make all the runs he likes, with the sort of bowling attack that the Indians have, they will still find it hard to win a match against Australia.
For India, Ishant Sharma is expected to feature as he has fully recovered from his injury. Rishi Dhawan is a young all-rounder who may get an opportunity to play for his country. Barinder Sran, the other new player in the India lineup was pretty impressive in the last match, getting 3 wickets.
For Australia, David Warner will miss out because of the birth of his first child, so Shaun Marsh makes yet another comeback for the national team. Some would argue that Marsh has been given far too many chances, but to little effect.
Team news
Australia: 1 Shaun Marsh, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Matthew Wade (wk), 7 James Faulkner, 8 Kane Richardson/John Hastings, 9 Scott Boland, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Joel Paris.
India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Ajinkya Rahane, 5 Manish Pandey, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin/Rishi Dhawan/Ishant Sharma, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Barinder Sran.
Match Conditions
We expect the pitch at Gabba to have a plenty of runs in it. The weather is expected to be bright and sunny with a possibility of shower in the evening.
Watch India play Australia in the 2nd ODIU, live from Brisbane at 8:50 am on Star Sports tomorrow!
