India captain Rohit Sharma said that his batters didn’t perform well and failed to build crucial partnerships as the Men in Blue lost the third and final ODI to Australia in Chennai and as a result, lost the series 1-2 as well.
Australia had won the toss and chose to bat first and made 269 runs. Mitchell Marsh top-scored with 47 runs. Alex Carey (38), Travis Head (33), Sean Abbott (26), and Marcus Stoinis (25) were the other run-getters. For India, Hardik Pandya with 3/44, and Kuldeep Yadav with 3/56 were the best bowlers.
In reply, Rohit Sharma (30) and Shubman Gill (37) added 65 runs for the first wicket. But then Australian bowlers tightened the noose on Indian batting as Adam Zampa with 4/45 and Ashton Agar with 2/41 bowled brilliantly in the middle overs.
Virat Kohli (54), KL Rahul (32), and Hardik Pandya (40) helped India stay in the game, but Australian bowlers kept picking wickets and were aided by some brilliant fielding as well. As a result, India could only manage 248 and lost the match by 21 runs and the series 1-2.
As a result, Australia also dethroned India to become the new no.1 ranked ODI team in the latest ICC rankings.
Meanwhile, India captain Rohit Sharma said that tha target was not a big one, but they failed to build partnerships.
“I don't think it was too many runs. We didn't bat well. Partnerships are crucial and that's something we failed to do today. You are brought up playing in these type of wickets, it's important you apply. After the start, it was important for one batter to carry on and take the game deep. It just didn't happen,” he was quoted as saying on Star Sports.
When asked about the takeaways for the Indian team ahead of the 2023 World Cup, Rohit Sharma said that there were very positive learnings from the nine ODIs they have played since January.
He added: “Lot of takeaways. We can take a lot of positives from the nine ODIs since January. We need to understand where we need to improve. It's a collective failure, we can take a lot of learnings from this series. Credit to the Australians. Both the spinners applied the pressure and so did their seamers.”
Now the Indian team players will disperse to join their respective franchises as the IPL 2023 begins on March 31.
