Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were understandably rusty and the entire team looked undercooked as Shubman Gill began to lose his way as India’s one-day international captain. India were bowled out by seven wickets in a rain-affected series opener in Perth, with Australia chasing a revised target of 131 in just 21.1 overs. India were comfortably outclassed in the format as their eight-match winning streak in ODIs came to a halt.
Mitchell Marsh played a captain’s knock, hitting an unbeaten 46 as Australia crossed the finish line without breaking a sweat in a game that was reduced to 26 overs per side. It was Australia’s first ODI win at Optus Stadium after defeats to England, South Africa and Pakistan at the venue in recent years.
Perth ODI, IND vs AUS: Highlights | Scorecard
India returned to the ODI format for the first time since their Champions Trophy triumph in March. While Rohit and Kohli returned to international cricket without any competitive match practice for four months, several others, including captain Shubman Gill, switched to 50-over cricket after playing the Test series last week. As a result, the team looked out of sync with the tempo required for one-day batting on a pitch that offered plenty of pace and bounce.
Indian batsmen have struggled, training in Australia for only three days, especially after their performances in the Asia Cup in the UAE and the Test series against the West Indies in the subcontinent. The pace and bounce at the Optus Stadium proved too hot to handle and the Australian bowlers used the conditions to perfection, shortening their lengths and forcing the Indian batsmen to aim for the bigger square boundaries.
WET WEATHER MAKES LIFE DIFFICULT FOR INDIA
The wet weather in Perth didn’t help either as the Indian batsmen found it difficult to maintain a rhythm, going in and out of the dressing room due to as many as four rain interruptions. The Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method also came under scrutiny as the target set for Australia (131) was lower than India’s original total (135). The system’s much-discussed flaws were exposed when Australia managed to get the best out of their leading pacers – Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc – before a rain interruption cut short the set quota of overs for the bowlers.
Regardless of the chatter around the calculations, Australia looked miles better than the country.
Sent out to bat on an overcast morning – his first non-captain in more than four years – Rohit Sharma soon got a taste of the pace and bounce on offer. The 38-year-old, who has a habit of giving India aggressive starts with his attacking approach that has redefined their white-ball game, tried to impose on Australia’s new attack but struggled to find his rhythm.
Rohit beautifully fielded Hazlewood who was given a length delivery to scramble off the surface. The extra bounce and hint of movement from the right-hander produced a healthy edge that carried comfortably into the slip cordon.
While Rohit took eight from 14 deliveries, Kohli failed to trouble the batsmen. The right-hander, whose problems with off-stump deliveries were exposed during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia earlier this year, struggled with the line again.
Starc stayed in the channel outside the off-stump, disappointing Kohli who remained scoreless for seven balls. He tried to break the shackles, pushed the van out and was captured on the spot. Kohli looked rusty and hesitant, playing too often from his body in a short stay that didn’t inspire much confidence.
Commenting, former India spinner Aakash Chopra questioned Rohit’s approach, wondering if he should continue his high-risk game now that he is no longer captain and will face more scrutiny if he fails to score consistently.
“In this new role as only the lead batsman and not the captain, I thought he would focus a lot more on quantity. The quality is always there – we have seen him change speed. He has started playing a different brand of cricket. But now we have to look at the volume of runs. Yes, one game can happen to anyone, but going forward you will feel like the sand is slipping out of your fist every time,” he said.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
October 19, 2025
