IN-DO-RE DIE FOR AUSSIES
Steve Smith & Co. have to win on Sunday to stay alive in series
Indore, Sept. 23: Packed with an incisive bowling attack, a confident India would look to pile on the misery for a struggling Australia and seal the fivematch series when they clash in the third ODI, here on Sunday. It was no small task for Virat Kohli and his men to defend a modest 252 on the Eden Garden wicket, which despite being a twopaced track favoured the batsmen. The hosts have their bowling combination working superbly for them. The swing master Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have made the Australian toporder look ordinary while the wrist spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal has made the Kangaroos dance to their tunes. Australia’s plight could easily be gauged from the fact that eight of their batsmen could not touch doubledigit scores in Chennai, while only four of them could score more than 10 runs in Kolkata.
India have surely taken a giant step for yet another series win, but the team has allowed the Australian to create a few openings that could have proved detrimental if there were not some rescue acts.
If the top order floundered in the series-opener, the middle order squirmed in Kolkata, where the bowlers won the match for the hosts.
Rohit Sharma, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey have not made any contribution in the team’s cause so far and to keep their places they have to do something worthwhile.
The selectors have named the squad only for the first three ODIs so it’s time that Pandey, who had a decent run during India A’s tour of South Africa, and Jadhav come up with something special.
Considering that the team management is looking to identify the number four and five positions for the 2019 World Cup in England, Pandey at number four so far has failed to impress.
Jadhav has proved that he is a utility batsman but he needs to be consistent and lift the side when it’s faced with crunch situations. Just the way Hardik Pandya, who is fast establishing himself as fastbowling all-rounder, did it in Chennai. In the first match he came good with bat and in Kolkata, he did the job with the ball.
The 70-yard short boundary on all sides would give the batsmen of both the teams chance to get a lot of runs. It has been a happy hunting ground for the Indians with both India captain Virat Kohli (211) and Ajinkya Rahane (188) getting big hundreds here last year against New Zealand in the third Test.
The major reason why the Indian batsmen have not been able to dominate the world champions is the incredibly consistent performance of their pacers, especially Nathan CoulterNile. Coulter-Nile has unswervingly put the ball outside off stump on good length, reminding of the Australian great Glenn McGrath.