Interviews

It’s a good start for Australia’s new T20 skipper George Bailey. Making a debut as the leader isn’t easy, but Bailey couldn’t have asked for a better start to his international career. All through the tour, Australia have managed to keep India under pressure, so the same was expected of the new-look T20 team ahead of the ODI tri-series.

Having won the toss, India should have batted first. We saw it in the Big Bash League that most of the teams who batted first, won the game.

Having not played here before, it would have been better to have a look at the wicket by sending Australia in first, but it didn’t work for them.

In this format, it’s always advisable to put runs on the board and then apply pressure. Even in the chase, India failed to show any sort of a fight. It was unfortunate that Virender Sehwag again failed to apply himself.

His feet are not moving and he is looking to play across the line. A delight to watch, he can be equally frustrating as well. He needs to understand that if he lasts for 10 overs, his team wins the game.

Middle order woes
Virat Kohli was looking good and it’s a shame that he got out when well set, but once again the middle order failed.

The batting is a big concern and I hope it comes good ahead of the ODIs. India have Manoj Tiwary in the reserves and having seen him play in the IPL, he should be tried out in the next game. Also, I was disappointed with India’s bowling selection. The medium pacers were similar sort of bowlers and there was no variety. I failed to understand why there were so many spinners.

The leggie, Rahul Sharma, who had impressed in the IPL, bowled decently but there should have been another pace bowler in place of any of the three spinners. The job that David Hussey does so well for Australia in this format can be done by someone like Sehwag or Suresh Raina.I hope they make those changes ahead of today’s game.

(The writer is a former Australia batsman)