The much-awaited return to international cricket for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and their legions of fans who had woken up early on a Sunday morning of the festival weekend in India, was spoiled by Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc as both the senior Indian batsmen were dismissed for single-digit scores in the IND vs AUS 1st ODI.
The IND vs AUS three-match ODI series got underway at Perth’s Optus Stadium, which is known for its spicy, pace-friendly pitch where Australia had previously lost all their ODI matches.
Another challenging surface was dished out today by the Optus curators, and matters were made worse for India as Mitchell Marsh, the stand-in Australian captain, won the toss and elected to bowl first with the rain threat around, which made the conditions even more advantageous for the Australian pacers who ensured their team got a rocking start.
Rohit and Kohli were in superb nick in their last ODI assignment, which was the ICC Champions Trophy. However, that tournament was played in the UAE in March.
Now, six months later, on a bouncy surface in Australia, with no international match practice behind them, both Rohit and Kohli failed to get to double digits, with the latter bagging his first-ever duck on Australian soil.
Rohit Sharma, whose ODI captaincy has been taken away, did play a gorgeous straight drive off Starc to collect his first boundary. But the metronomic Hazlewood got the better of the senior Indian opener with a typical back-of-length delivery in the channel outside the off-stump, the ball bouncing extra than Rohit anticipated with his poke, and he edged it to Matt Renshaw at second slip.
In came Virat Kohli, whose last Test century came at this very venue last year. But today, the 36-year-old had to walk back with only a duck to his name. He was tested initially by accurate line and length from Starc and was lucky not to outside edge behind as he missed his drive far away from his body. A maiden over.
In Starc’s next over, Kohli went for a drive again to a delivery once again well outside the off-stump. The Indian superstar didn’t care for looking to keep it down on the ground; his uppish, mishit drive flew to the left of the backward point fielder, Cooper Connolly, who took an excellent diving catch.
The excitement of the fans to watch Ro-Ko back in India colors was dimmed in just over half an hour of the match. Netizens let out their disappointment and frustrations with the two seniors on Twitter.
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