(Cricket news) India have lost a bilateral series at home for the first time since 2019. For the series decider in Chennai India retained the same XI with 3 spinners as the pitch looked like it would turn. Australia also thought so as they brought in Ashton Agar for Nathan Ellis. David Warner was declared fit and he replaced Cameron Green who was ill. However Warner batted at number 4 as Australia presumably didn’t want to break the successful opening partnership. Steve Smith won the toss and elected to bat first and Rohit Sharma was happy with that as he said that they wanted to bowl first anyway.
Australia once again got off to a flying start as they were aggressive from the very first over. Australia were 61-1 in 10 overs when Rohit Sharma turned to his vice captain Hardik Pandya. The all-rounder showed his brilliance as he dismissed Travis Head for 33, Steve Smith for a duck and Mitchell Marsh for 47. That spell from Pandya got India back into the game as Australia were 85/3 in no time.
From then on India took wickets at regular intervals but David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar all played decent cameos to take Australia to a total of 269. Hardik Pandya finished with figures of 3/44 in 8 overs while Kuldeep Yadav also got 3 scalps. Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel also chipped in with 2 wickets each.
Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma got India off to a great start as they were 65/0 in 9 overs. Rohit Sharma scored 30 off just 17 balls by Seam Abbott. He looked to be aggressive but it backfired massively as his wicket proved to be costly. Shubman was looking good on 37 but Adam Zampa got rid of him by trapping him in front with a beautiful ball. KL Rahul came in ahead of Suryakumar Yadav and steadied things down. He too got out to Adam Zampa trying to hit a big shot over long on. Axar Patel came in but was soon run out thanks to some incredible fielding by Steve Smith.
Virat Kohli got another half century as he scored 54 off 72 balls hitting 2 fours and 1 six. He got out to Agar after playing a nothing shot to long off after a couple of mistimed shots had fell short of the boundary riders. Suryakumar Yadav finally came in at number 6 but his fate was the same as the batter once again got out on the very first ball this time to Ashton Agar. Hardik Pandya got a run a ball 40 but was also dismissed by Zampa. Ravindra Jadeja just couldn’t get going in his innings as could only manage 18 off 33. India in the end fell 21 runs short after a pretty disappointing batting performance.
