Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images) The much-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 elected to field, extending India’s 16th consecutive loss in an ODI draw, with the last win coming in the 2023 Champions Trophy semi-final against New Zealand at the Wankhede. As the match began, the Aussie bowlers made the most of the bouncy pitch in Perth. Josh Hazlewood caught Rohit with a perfectly tossed delivery while Mitchell Starc got Virat to chase 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, the lowest total by India’s top three in men’s ODIs since the 2019 World Cup semi-final against New Zealand.In the World Cup 2019 semi-final at Old Trafford, India’s top three – KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – also struggled under pressure, managing just 1 run each. Despite a valiant lower-order partnership between Ravindra Jadeja (77) and MS Dhoni (50), India fell behind to lose the match by 18 runs, ending their 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.
