The highly anticipated return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in India’s first ODI against Australia in Perth did not go as fans had hoped. Australia won the toss and chose to field, extending India’s 16th consecutive ODI toss loss, with the last win coming in the 2023 Champions Trophy semifinals against New Zealand at Wankhede. When the match got underway, Australia’s bowlers made the most of the bouncy Perth pitch. Josh Hazlewood trapped Rohit with a perfectly pitched delivery, while Mitchell Starc got Virat to chase a wide, resulting in a duck for the first time in 30 ODI innings in Australia. Shubman Gill managed a few boundaries but was eventually dismissed lbw. The trio combined for just 18 runs, marking the lowest total by India’s top three in a men’s ODI since the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.Back in the 2019 World Cup semi-final at Old Trafford, India’s top three—KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli—also struggled under pressure, each managing just 1 run. Despite a valiant lower-order partnership between Ravindra Jadeja (77) and MS Dhoni (50), India fell short and lost the match by 18 runs, bringing an end to the World Cup campaign.
India
(Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh
Australia
(Playing XI): Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh(c), Matthew Short, Josh Philippe(w), Matt Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh HazlewoodAs things stand in Perth, India are 46 for 4 at the time of writing and the match has been reduced to 32 overs per side due to persistent rain interruptions.
