Dhawan, pacers cost India series
The sight of Virat Kohli’s India winning ODI series has become such a familiar sight that seeing them lose to disjointed Australia looked peculiar. The last time India lost a series at home was against South Africa in 2015. However, there are several key areas where explanation for the loss can be found.
NEW BALL STRUGGLES
Early wickets have eluded India for a while now in white ball cricket. In 2018, their bowling average in overs 1-10 was 39.69, the worst for any team in this summer’s World Cup. It is a failing that has revisited them again in this series. In those first 10 overs, Australia’s bowlers took a wicket every 42.8 balls. India were took one every 100 balls. It allowed Australia’s lower order to flourish. However, there is comfort for Kohli. Australia played a false stroke to 22.5% of balls in first 10 overs, a lot more than India’s 16.2%. On another day, those false shots may have produced chances.
SEAM BOWLING DEPTH
India are blessed with the two best ODI seamers: Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s mastery of the top and tail tied to Jasprit Bumrah’s pace and precision. But after them, India England West Indies Australia Sri Lanka Pakistan South Africa New Zealand Bangladesh Afghanistan West Indies (A), 2017 Sri Lanka (A) , 2017 Australia (H), 2017 New Zealand (H), 2017 Sri Lanka (H), 2017 South Africa (A), 2018 England (A), 2018 Asia Cup, 2018 West Indies(a), 2018 Australia (A), 2019 New Zealand (A), 2019 Australia (H), 2019
things get thin.
India were searching for a solution, by rotating the seam attack, but they were stung by Bumrah’s loss of form. His strike rate was 41.8 — his worst in a bilateral contest. Whilst being economical at 4.99 rpo, he is India’s attack leader and did not performing as such. Kumar, still returning to full fitness, was unable to have too much influence, even as his trio of wickets in Delhi threatened to limit Australia. Mohammed Shami and Vijay Shankar took just seven wickets at a combined average of 46.14.
AUSTRALIANS EXCEL Despite being current world champions, this Australia squad is not used to winning ODIS. In the 12 months before this series, they had won two matches. India had won 15. This series, however, saw several Australians step up and achieve personal bests. The 383 runs at 76.60 by Khawaja were his highest in a series. It was also Adam Zampa and Pat Cummins’s highest hauls, the latter’s coming at his best average. When Ashton Turner’s innings in Mohali is thrown into the mix, the overperformance of this Australian side comes charging into view.
OPENING ISSUES
India openers averaged 37.90 in this series, their lowest since England toured India in 2017 — 11 series ago. India’s openers have had a combined average of less than 40 in their last two series, and 40.00 the series before. That isn’t a big problem, but the strength of India’s top three is their defining strength. If it becomes just ‘good’ then India are in trouble.
This is largely due to Shikhar Dhawan. Since the end of the Asia Cup, he averaged 31.29. The worry for Dhawan is that the basis of his dominance in ODIS has been an excellent record against pace, but that dwindled.
In 2018, he averaged 56.06 in ODIS. That year, his average against pace was 74.33. So far in 2019, he’s averaged just 30.72 against pace, with seamers accounting for 11 of his 12 dismissals. That’s not ideal going to England. CRICVIZ