Team India suffered a crushing 10-wicket defeat at the hands of Australia in the first game of the three-match ODI series at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday (January 14).

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Sent into bat, the hosts got bowled out for a modest 255 in 49.1 overs. Opener Shikhar Dhawan was the top-scorer for India with 74 off 91 balls.

For Australia, Mitchell Starc (3/56), Pat Cummins (2/44) and Kane Richardson (2/43) were the wrecker-in-chief with the ball.

In reply, the visitors chased down the target in 37.4 overs with David Warner (128* off 112 balls) and Aaron Finch (110* off 114 balls) smashing unbeaten centuries.

Speaking after the match, Dhawan said the loss of four quick wickets in the middle overs was the main reason behind India’s humiliating defeat.

"We handled those first 10-15 overs very nicely. As I said that where we lost four wickets in a go, that is where the game changed for us, then we were behind the game and then we were trying to cover it, so that is where we went wrong," the southpaw told reports in the post-match press conference.

India lost four wickets in quick succession after Dhawan and KL Rahul (47) put the home team in a commanding position with their 121-run stand for the second wicket.

"KL (Rahul) got out. That time we planned to accelerate and those four wickets we lost, that's where we lost the momentum. We were targeting 300 runs but we ended up scoring less runs. In bowling, we could not take early wickets. They outplayed us," the left-hander remarked.

Asked whether the Indian batting was too reliant on him, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Dhawan said, "See it is just one bad day in office. We played really well against West Indies, there all the batsmen did well.

"Shreyas (Iyer) has been doing so well and he is a young lad, one-odd innings is going to go here and there, but we as a team back each other and we don't focus or put too much on one loss."

"They played really well, we were bit unlucky as top-edges went here and there and not in the hands (of the fielders)," he added.

In order to accommodate both Dhawan and Rahul in the playing XI, the Indian captain dropped himself down the batting order to No. 4.

Talking about Kohli’s decision, Dhawan said it was completely the skipper's choice.

"See that is a captain's choice, KL is batting well, he did well in the last series and he played really well and he played well today. I feel it is the captain's choice where he wants to play and he has done amazing at number three, maybe I feel, he will think about it to go at number three again," he said.

"Good that KL came at no. 3. He's been batting as an opener in the last one or two series and the support staff asked him to bat at No.3 and he scored runs.

"He's a brilliant player and he has been performing consistently, doing really well so I'm sure that he will keep doing well," he said.

Dhawan also heaped praise on Australia’s dazzling duo of Warner and Finch.

"Of course David is a world-class player and yes, once he's set he takes the game away, that's his ability. We were trying our best to get hold of him, unfortunately we couldn't.

"But as I said they outplayed us. David and Finch both played very well. We're going to learn from it and come up with a better plan," he concluded.

(With PTI inputs)