India suffered a 21-run loss to Australia in the third and deciding ODI which was played at the Chepauk in Chennai on March 22 and resulted in them losing the ODI series 2-1 as well. This result also meant that India lost their no.1 ODI rank to Australia in the latest ICC update.
Australia had won the toss and chosen to bat and were going strong with Mitchell Marsh top-scoring with 47, but then Hardik Pandya picked three quick wickets to bring their charge to a halt and then Kuldeep Yadav struck thrice in middle overs to ensure Australia didn’t go past the 300-run mark.
It was only due to valuable contributions from Marcus Stoinis (25) and Sean Abbott (26), Australia made 269 runs.
In reply, India batters were bamboozled by Australian spinners as Adam Zampa picked four wickets and Ashton Agar two wickets, in two consecutive balls to rattle the Indian batting, who folded for 248 runs and lost the match by 21 runs.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, a user suggested that Kuldeep Yadav wasn’t given proper fields and he compared that same with Adam Zampa, and Ashton Agar, suggesting that Steve Smith had better fielding placements for his spinners.
The user also tagged former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan for his opinion on the take. However, Siva, as he is fondly known, made a startling revelation, that he had in fact offered his services to Rahul Dravid, the Indian team's head coach.
“I offered my services to Rahul Dravid and he said that I was too senior to him ,to be working under him-with the spinners,” said Sivaramakrishnan.
Sivaramakrishnan represented India in 9 Tests and 16 ODIs and took 154 wickets in 76 first-class matches. Earlier this month, Dravid called up former leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule to work with Indian spinners during the four-Test series against Australia.
