Sydney: The two teams face each other in the second ODI at the same venue on Sunday.
Australia had hammered 374 for six wickets in 50 overs, built on centuries from captain Aaron Finch and Steve Smith, half-century from David Warner and a 19-ball 45 from Glenn Maxwell.
Josh Hazlewood then rubbed salt to India’s wounds as he removed three of the top four batsmen inside the first 10 overs with short deliveries as Virat Kohli’s team, despite a fightback from Hardik Pandya, fell short by 66 runs.
The ODI series is the first for India in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League, from which the top seven teams will qualify for the 2023 World Cup, to be held in India.
India, playing in the retro jersey from 1992 World Cup, faced problems on different counts — the bowling and fielding was not up to the mark and their over rate was slow enough to force ICC to dock 20 per cent of the players’ match fees.
None of the bowlers, except Mohammed Shami, could go below six runs an over with leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal conceding 89 in his 10 overs. Chahal’s is the most by an Indian bowler in ODI history.
India could replace Chahal with Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav in Sunday’s fixture although the bigger problem for India is that they don’t have enough bowling options to back the five bowlers.
Former England skipper Michael Vaughan had tweeted on Saturday that India’s team structure is too old-fashioned. “This Indian ODI team is too old school for me…Just 5 bowling options & the batting isn’t deep enough!!!” he said.
