India vs Australia 2019 | Takeaways: Virat Kohli's need for rest and the great Maxi position conundrum

India vs Australia 2019 | Takeaways: Virat Kohli's need for rest and the great Maxi position conundrum

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Riding on a Virat Kohli century, India cruised to a comfortable six-wicket victory against Australia in Adelaide. However, Kohli had suffered back spasm in the game which put a mark on his workload and that is our biggest takeaway of the day given India’s World Cup chances hinge clearly on him.

Why do you waste Maxwell?

The last two ODIs in Adelaide have been a low scoring affair with Australia defending a lowly score of 231 against South Africa earlier this season. In that match, the pace bowlers enjoyed considerable success and probably, Australia would have kept that in mind while going in to bat first today. However, they made the same mistake that cost them at least 30 runs in the Sydney ODI by sending Marcus Stoinis ahead of Glenn Maxwell. In Sydney, Maxwell scored 11 runs off only five balls and that was good enough to make a statement. 

In Adelaide, when Maxwell came out to bat in the 37th over, he knew that he had an opportunity to make a statement. And he did. His 48 runs off 37 balls put Australia in a position of strength and the way he accelerated his innings made sure that Shaun Marsh could breathe easy. There is an aspect of Maxwell’s batsmanship that keeps him in good stead when he comes higher up the order. When you are into 38th over, you don’t need to anchor an innings, rather needs to open the arms and play as many shots as possible. Maxwell is evidently better than Stoinis in that aspect and Australia failed to use one of their best resources properly.

Does Virat Kohli need a rest now?

Let's address the elephant in the room first. Since 2016, no one has faced more balls in international cricket than Virat Kohli. He faced more than 8,000 deliveries apart from the IPL and warm-up matches, which is no mean number and in all respect, he deserves the rest for the sheer hard-work and workload in the last few years. In the innings today, he had to return back to the pavilion for a moment and under the sweltering heat of Adelaide, his impeccable level of fitness took a toll. So how can you protect him for the World Cup?

Given the flat and fast batting decks New Zealand are providing now a days, Kohli shouldn’t miss it as it can be the closest that he can get to batting in England. However, if he does make an adjustment to his schedule and let Rohit Sharma lead in the next month’s home series against Australia, then he can take a nice one and half months of the break before returning for the IPL. That will provide his sore back a break and he can serve well for India in the world cup. 

Kohli has been one of the very few cricketers in the history of the game who loves his game so passionately and very few could have put their hands on their chest and say that they value winning more than the Indian skipper. If India want to win the World Cup, then they would obviously need a fit and fresh Indian skipper.

MS Dhoni still has a bit left in the tank

MS Dhoni’s innings in the first ODI in Sydney would perhaps go down as one of the most bizarre innings he has played in his career, where he struggled for timing and simply could not find the gaps while scoring 51 runs off 96 balls. It was quite a fall for the man, who was once considered to have set the impossible standard for finishing off games. The emergence of Rishabh Pant in the Australia Test series didn’t help the cause either. His batting in the middle phase of the game, which he used to boss with his defensive approach before launching the assault, was largely exposed and his frailties were out in the open.

In the second ODI, however, he unleashed a different MS Dhoni there. Of course, he took his time to get going but made sure that he was up to the task of finishing it by himself. When he was playing the second fiddle to Virat Kohli, he ran those couples and threes, which was pretty important in the context of the game. His running meant India had at least covered 20 runs before the last five over started. 

He took the run-chase to the deep, and despite knowing that he had failed in his pursuit more often than not, he didn’t bother for a moment. Dinesh Karthik gave him support from other ends, and as a run-rate fell down, he hit a six over long-on - almost in the same manner, he hit Clint McKay for a winning six at the same ground.

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