Sydney: India made a dismal start to their tour of Australia, losing the first ODI by 66 runs here, chasing a mammoth 375-run target after Aaron Finch and Steve Smith smashed hundreds for the hosts.
“Everyone needs to show the intent in the entire 50 overs. Probably, we played 50 overs after a long time that could have an affect…but having said that we have played so much ODI cricket that it is not something we don’t know how to do,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
“I think the body language in the field wasn’t great after around 25 overs. It was a disappointing part. If you don’t take your chances against a top-quality opposition they’ll hurt you and that is what happened today.”
With Hardik Pandya not yet to fit to bowl, Kohli said it is affecting the balance of the team.
“We have to find out a way to get few overs from part-timers. unfortunately, someone like Hardik is not ready to bowl yet, we have to accept that, we don’t really have all-round options as such right now,” he said.
“That is an area to be looked at, it is a big part in any team’s balance, someone like Marcus (Stoinis), (Glenn) Maxwell bowling a few overs for Australia helped.”
Kohli said his bowlers couldn’t pick wickets regularly and it allowed the Australians to post a big total in the end.
“The key to winning games is picking up wickets, that is something we were not able to do, also lapses in the field were also a reason why we couldn’t capitalise on any kind of momentum, the pressure that we created in early part of the innings.”
