SHAMBLES: India Implode in ODI series against Australia even as Rohit Sharma achieves new high

Team India went Down Under, literally, losing the ODI series to Australia 0-2 on Thursday. If the reverse in the first ODI was seen as an aberration, the capitulation in the second ODI in Adelaide has ensured carping critics will pour pure vitriol on new captain Shubman Gill, a failure again, and coach Gautam Gambhir.

A bit about context prior to this ODI series, where the focus was on how and why two seasoned pros – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – left with just one format – had been included for this series. Tongues wagged, the two were past prime, and a change in captaincy augured well for India. Well, if there is chatter around flop shows, Gill has flopped. At the same time, the way coach Gambhir has made team selections for the 11 is baffling. To leave out Kuldeep Yadav is indeed a crime. For the record, the trump card for the Aussies was spinner Adam Zampa, who took four wickets.

These days, the way news and views are 'peddled' on social media platforms, Rohit Sharma had 'not been seen' at practice a day earlier and was going to be dropped. Laughable that, since the former India captain may have struggled early on in the second ODI but scored 73 runs off 97 balls. The strike rate was low, compared to the lofty standards which Hitman has set. Yet, at the top of the order, for the former India captain to hit seven fours and two sixes cannot be taken lightly. He may have been rusty, but the lean,  trim version of Rohit did catch the eye. To score an aggregate of 11249 runs in 275 ODIs, Rohit has now moved ahead of Sourav Ganguly (11221) runs.

Cricket is, indeed, stats driven. So, Rohit scoring 73 to move to the all-time third position as leading ODI run-scorer for India, behind Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 runs) and Virat Kohli (14,181 runs) is a milestone. Whether he will be allowed to play more ODIs and go on till the 2027 World Cup, nobody knows. In a way, these two losses have come as a rude wake-up call after the hype over Gill and Gambhir. For those who have hyped them as folks with a Midas touch and everything they touch turning gold is hyperbole. After all, when India won the Champions Trophy in Dubai earlier this year, Rohit was skipper and Kohli had also scored runs.

Virat Kohli made news and grabbed headlines even by scoring a zero, again, in Adelaide. His gesture of raising the bat and looking at the fans has been interpreted lavishly. As usual, those who are innocent of cricket and unaware of the emotions say, this was a ‘retirement wave.’ That, however, is a bit of exaggeration as the social media post from Kohli a few days back was emphatic. For those who trolled him on Thursday and say he is ‘out of form’ or ‘does not put in effort’ the illiteracy is glaring. But then, when Kohli is criticised, be it in print, digital platforms or even YouTube, it does not matter. He is above all this. No media-person or social media influencer can decide on the career of Virat Kohli. And the way it has panned out, these two losses, even coach Gambhir can stay quiet for a few days. After all, his experiments have boomeranged, where he thinks India has all rounders and bits and pieces cricketers who will do the job. Leaving out Kuldeep sucks.

“We had just enough runs on the board. Never easy when you drop a couple of chances to be able to defend that kind of a total,” said Gill later. The new ODI captain needs to be reminded 264 runs is not enough in the 50-over format these days. Even in women’s cricket, as seen in the ongoing World Cup, over 300 runs is also chasable, again shown by the Aussies – women.