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Brisbane, Jan 15 : 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 by registering a comfotable 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 inadequate at the WACA, particularly the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who had a bad day in office. As such, there is scope for trying out different combinations.
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.
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.
But the performance of his spin duo would be a concern for Dhoni. Both Ashwin and Jadeja were off-colour in the series opener. While the former gave away 68 runs for two wickets from his nine overs, the latter too was expensive costing 61 runs from as many overs without any success. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact either Ashwin or Jadeja can make.
Consistency is something which Dhoni would look for from bowling attack. To add to it, Dhoni also does not have definitive part-time options to fall back upon.
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 on Friday.
India’s other two fast bowlers — Bhuvneshwar and Umesh Yadav also failed to make an impression. While Bhuvneshwar was economical Yadav gave away some runs but both failed to trouble the Australian batsmen much. The wicket for Friday’s match should be more to the seamers’ liking, not a green top definitely, but one with ample bounce and pace.
On the batting front, there isn’t much to complain about for India, with Rohit Sharma’s unbeaten 171 and vice- captain Virat Kohli’s 91 helping them to a big score. But one criticism emanating from that loss in Perth was that Rohit and Kohli did not do enough to push the scoring rate towards the end.
There has been considerable talk about the top-three batsmen trying to do a bit more, in terms of strike-rate, especially if one or two of them get going like in Perth.
The Indians would also be wary about the form of Australian skipper Steven Smith. 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. George Bailey, another centurion for Australia with a 112-run knock in Perth, too would be hoping to carry on his form.
Teams:
Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Steven Smith(c), George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade(w), James Faulkner, John Hastings, Kane Richardson, Scott Boland, Joel Paris
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Barinder Sran
Match preview
If the first One-Day International (ODI) between Australia and India was any indicator, the Brisbane game on Friday (January 15) is likely to only take things up a notch. Rohit Sharma, Steven Smith and Virat Kohli hit the headlines, but so did George Bailey's floppy hat, Barinder Sran, MS Dhoni and the Decision Review System (DRS).
Australia managed to take a 1-0 lead after successfully chasing down 309, and will be keen on taking the momentum forward. A 2-0 lead will put immense pressure on the visitors, and Australia will try to ensure they take full advantage of a pitch that is expected to be, like the one in Perth, pacer-friendly.
India, despite being 0-1 down, will know that the performance was still worthy of a win. They did well with the bat, struck early with the ball and had a great chance to get themselves a win. Smith and Bailey however turned things around with a stellar stand.
Date and time: 15th January, 13:20 PM local time, 8:50 AM IST
Weather: Very slight chance of showers
Venue: Gabba, Brisbane
Teams
India: The main conundrum India will hope to solve is about the spinners. Playing both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja backfired on the visitors at Perth, and they will think twice before repeating the same. Dhoni had stressed before the series that spin was their key strength, and that they had to back that, so India might as well give the two-spinner ploy another shot.
Ishant Sharma, who missed the first ODI with an injured finger, should be back in the side, taking Bhuvneshwar Kumar's place, while Rishi Dhawan and Axar Patel continue to wait on the sidelines. The tall right-armer bowled for more than twenty minutes in the nets and had the physios inspect his injured finger again. However, BCCI's media manager confirmed that the pacer is fit and ready for selection.
Shikhar Dhawan's form at the top has been quite shaky, and India will want him to hit top gear soon. Rohit and Virat Kohli will continue to be the fulcrum of the line-up, while the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey will hope they do not take too much time to acclimatize themselves to the conditions in Australia.
Australia: Australia will be forced to make at least two changes to their winning combination. Mitchell Marsh has been rested for the game, while David Warner is on paternity leave. John Hastings and Usman Khawaja were brought in as reinforcements, but the duo could only serve as back-up.
Shaun Marsh looks most likely to take Warner's slot at the top of the order, while Kane Richardson should fill in for Marsh. Hastings, however, comes in with years of experience and Australia could also be tempted to use him to shore up the inexperienced attack.
Joel Paris and Scott Boland are expected to keep their spots despite not enjoying the best of debuts.
Quotes:
James Faulkner: I think in general, since Boofs (Darren Lehmann) taken over as coach, hes given us a hell of a lot of confidence as a batting group and as a group in general. He said the other night after the game, hed rather see us being bowled out for 200 while trying to reach 300-plus, than sort of nudging it around and making a meal of it. Ive had a hell of a lot of confidence playing under him and I know every other player in the group does as well, to try and stretch our limits as a group.
Rohit Sharma: There were a lot of positives to be taken from that game especially scoring 300 runs in Perth. Losing the game was not such a positive thing, but again we did pretty much what we could have. They created very good partnerships and then we were not able to get back in the game. They batted really well. There were a lot of positives in our batting but we still need to work on our bowling and get those breakthroughs whenever there is a big partnership going on.