Rajkumar Sharma, Virat Kohli’s childhood coach, remarked on the struggles of Team India batters against left-arm pacers in the ongoing ODI series against Australia. According to him, the Men in Blue had difficulty in the first two matches and needed to work on this weak point in order to succeed at the ICC ODI World Cup. Sharma made his comments during a conversation with India News Sports.
“Team India’s performance in the second game was very surprising. It is a major setback. We have to take it as a wake-up call and prepare accordingly for the World Cup.
“Our batting got completely exposed, which is very concerning because we will have to play the same kind of bowling in the World Cup. The batters’ weakness against left-arm pacers was exposed once again, and they need to work very hard.”
On Sunday at Visakhapatnam, Mitchell Starc struck India’s star-studded batting lineup in the second ODI, securing his ninth five-wicket haul and helping his team to dismiss the home side for 117 runs.
“This cannot be seen as a one-off failure of India”- Saba Karim
Former cricketer Saba Karim, a part of the same panel, highlighted that it is not uncommon for Indian batters to capitulate in the face of quality fast bowling. He noted that this had been a repeated occurrence. The team cannot continuously rely on their middle-order batsmen to pull them out of trouble.
“This cannot be seen as a one-off failure. We struggled even during the first match while batting in the second half. This was the second time that Mitchell Starc troubled us. We struggled against Sean Abbott and Nathan Ellis as well.
“The Indian team management and selectors will have to raise some hard questions now. How many times are you going to count on your lower middle order to bail you out? The top-order batters will have to work on their techniques. We have been repeating the same mistakes over and over again.”
Australia easily surpassed the 118-run target in the second ODI, needing just 11 overs to do so and claiming a 10-wicket victory to level the series 1-1.
