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India’s bowling was once again exposed as Australian batters weathered the spin storm to chase down 265 with 22 balls to spare at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. The two-wicket win gave the Mitchell Marsh-led side the ODI series with a game in hand, having already won the rain-curtailed opener in Perth last week by seven wickets.
Unlike in Perth, Rohit Sharma showed defiance, scoring a potentially career-extending 73 and forging a 118-run third-wicket stand with vice-captain Shreyas Iyer, who contributed 61 off 77 balls, as India posted 264 for nine. Australia struggled against India’s spinners, but by playing Nitish Reddy as a multi-skilled option instead of a proven match-winner like Kuldeep Yadav, the visitors paid the price in a tight contest.
Speaking to broadcasters after the match, former India fast bowler Varun Aaron explained how India’s bowling plan fell flat. He said that while the Australian batters did struggle against spin, the bowlers were relying on mistakes rather than actively taking wickets.
Aaron acknowledged that Kuldeep couldn’t come in at the expense of a pacer, as going into an Australian contest with just two fast bowlers is a no-go. He therefore urged head coach Gautam Gambhir to move on from his set plan and reconsider including the leg-spinner in place of a batter.
“Kuldeep Yadav should have come in from game one. You will have to sacrifice a batsman. Obviously, you can’t play two fast bowlers in Australia. That’s that. That would be a no-go. But Kuldeep is somebody who will get you wickets. He will make up for those runs which you didn’t score. And also, the moment you have one batter short, I feel batsmen in general would take more responsibility on themselves and try to dig in deeper because they know they don’t have that cushion at the back,” he said.
“It’s not that India have never played with seven batters before. They have in the past, and I think Kuldeep would be a great addition because he would get you wickets in the middle. And today again, India were depending on the batsmen to make mistakes, rather than to get wickets in the middle. But they didn’t really get the batsman out, if that makes sense. They’re two very different things.”
India are playing with only five specialist batters while three other all-rounders – Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy – make up the top eight. If the management decides to include Kuldeep in the final game in Sydney on Saturday, they might have to bench Reddy, who hasn’t picked up a wicket yet in the series, and has scored only 27 runs in two innings.
