AUSTRALIA: Another high-scoring contest expected at the Gabba
Stung by the defeat in the series opener despite putting up a big score, India will have to plug their bowling loopholes when they take on Australia in the second cricket one-dayer here on Friday, fully aware that any slip-up will make their task of bouncing back difficult.
Chasing an imposing 310, Australia romped home with ease by registering a comfortable five-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series at Perth on Tuesday. And at the Gabba on Friday, the visitors would be hoping to make life difficult for Australia – but for that to happen Mahendra Singh Dhoni would be expecting a much-improved show from his bowlers. The five bowlers India played proved to be inadequately short at the WACA, particularly the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who had a bad day in office. Ishant set to return? Lanky pacer Ishant Sharma is fit and available for selection. If Dhoni decides to go in with the same combination which he fielded in Perth, Ishant could come in for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The WACA wicket was slower than expected, but the Gabba pitch is not expected to be similar which provides Dhoni enough reasons to contemplate going in with four pacers. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact either Ashwin or Jadeja can make as they will look to shrug off the poor show in the previous game. Young left-arm pacer Barinder Sran, who made his debut in the last match, was the eye-catcher for India in the losing cause in Perth. He picked up three wickets giving away 56 runs and the tall Punjab pacer would be hoping for a repeat performance. The wicket for Friday’s match should be more to the seamers’ liking, not a green top definitely, but rather one with ample bounce and pace. On the batting front, there isn’t much to complain about for India. India rode on Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 171 and vice- captain Virat Kohli’s 91 to post 309 runs on the board. And thus, it can be assumed that the batsmen will be asked to shoulder even more responsibility going ahead. India’s nemesis The Indians, however, would be wary about the form of Australian skipper Steven Smith. Chasing the imposing target, Australia rode on captain Smith’s fluent 149 to script the comfortable win in Perth. Smith turned out to be India’s nemesis again, pacing his innings to perfection. His sequence of scores against the ‘Men In Blue’ across formats now reads: 162 not out, 52 not out, 133, 28, 192, 14, 117, 71, 47, 105, 149. If the Indians were to win the ongoing five-match ODI series in Australia, the visitor’s will have to find a way to dismiss Smith early. Australia, however, will be without the services of both David Warner and Mitchell Marsh, both of whom are unavailable for the second ODI. While Warner is away on paternal leave and will be rejoining the squad for the Melbourne ODI, Mitchell Marsh has been rested to manage his workload. In Warner’s absence, it provides a great opportunity for Mitchell’s brother Shaun Marsh to sneak into the playing eleven. In-form Usman Khawaja has also been called up to the squad in Warner’s absence, and he will be part of the toss-up for the missing opener’s spot as well.PTI
