New Delhi: India captain Virat Kohli acknowledged the need to rethink the team’s batting order after being steamrolled by Australia in Mumbai on Tuesday, but said there was no cause to panic after losing the first one-day international of a three-match series.
India were subjected to a 10-wicket thrashing for only the fifth time in their history after scoring a modest 255, a total overhauled by Australia in the 38th over.
India packed three openers in their playing XI in a bid to give more game-time to in-form players, rejigging the top order with Kohli dropping down to No. 4 to accommodate KL Rahul at three, but the plan came unstuck against a fired-up Australian attack.
“Because of the way KL has been batting, we have tried to fit him in the batting line-up,” Kohli said.
“Having said that, I don’t think it’s quite gone our way whenever I’ve batted No. 4, so we’ll probably have to rethink about that one.”
Rohit Sharma made 10, while fellow opener Shikhar Dhawan forged a century-partnership with Rahul before India lost four wickets, including Kohli, for 30 runs before being bowled out in the final over.
“All in all it’s about giving some guys opportunities and you’ll never know if this works or not if you don’t try,” Kohli said.
“It’s very easy to just go with one template and just follow it non-stop. I think people need to relax and not panic with one game, I’m allowed to experiment a little bit and fail as well at times. You lose games here and there but today was one of the days where it didn’t come off.”
Australian openers David Warner and Aaron Finch smashed unbeaten hundreds and stitched together the largest partnership against India in one-day cricket to help the tourists romp home with 12.2 overs to spare.
The two sides will meet in Rajkot for the second ODI on Friday.
