India vs Australia | Takeaways : Virat Kohli’s sudden match-up affection and Australia’s lack of foresight

Virat Kohli responds to captaincy doubts and how

In the first game in Brisbane, people had a lot of questions on Virat Kohli’s captaincy after the Indian skipper failed to get the match-ups right. While Jasprit Bumrah didn’t bowl to Chris Lynn despite having a great record against hard-hitters, Kuldeep wasn’t brought against Glenn Maxwell despite the latter having obvious problems against wrist-spinners. On the other hand, Rohit Sharma’s acumen and superb bent of analytical mind have never been in question and it has even led to some suggesting turning in the reigns of the limited-overs team to him.

However, at MCG, Kohli showcased why anyone shouldn’t be in the panic mode now with his brilliant analysis of the game situation. He kept Bumrah for the middle-overs and allowed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed to dictate terms in the powerplay. Khaleel, given the fact that he is better at swinging the ball, used that to his advantage and when Bumrah came into the bowl, Australia failed to counter him thus ending the potential chance of scoring a 200. Although India slipped few chances, Kohli’s fielding change also seemed very attacking - a far cry from the days of his defensive fieldset to reduce the run-flow. 

Playing Mitchell Starc - Australia's fickle priorities

As the T20I series ended today, the hosts will take on India in a four-match Test series, which despite the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner, is almost certain to give India a huge challenge thanks to the bowling attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins. To keep an eye on that, the selectors decided to rest the trio from involving in any sort of limited-overs matches in last six months and focused on giving them match practice at the Sheffield Shield. 

As a matter of fact, this was Starc’s first T20 match in two years, and nobody would understand what was the point of playing him in this match and instead should have been allowed to go to Perth to play for New South Wales against Western Australia. It would have given the duo a chance to play some more first-class matches to make them prepare for the Adelaide Test, where their workload is not going to take a toll thanks to the liberal scheduling of the series. At the same time, having him in the T20 team has made things a bit more confusing about the dynamic and fickle priorities about Australian management.

Australia liberates Shikhar Dhawan

Sunil Gavaskar, VVS Laxman, and Sachin Tendulkar. What is the common among the trio? Brilliant batsmanship, of course. Apart from that, it was the affinity to do well against Australia that separated them from the other Indian batsmen. Many players had their moments, but none did it as frequently as the aforementioned trio has done. Among the modern-day Indian cricketers, if one player, who can be given the same position, it has to be Shikhar Dhawan. 

After making a stellar 187 on debut in Mohali against Australia, he chose the opposition for many of his fine innings. Be it the 78 in the Sydney ODI in 2016 or 126 in Canberra in the same series, or that 68 in Melbourne in reply to Rohit Sharma’s 171 in Perth, Australia saw him shred them mercilessly. While his Test career never got going really well overseas, his 81 at the Gabba in 2014 had made the things easier for the team. After the fluency with which he played today, one thing is clear that it is Australia and the atmosphere that liberates him.

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