India and Australia will meet each other for a three-match mini ODI series in India, while the first match was conducted on 22 September at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. The BCCI decided to rest their experienced players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Kuldeep Yadav for the first 2 ODIs and make them available for the 3rd ODI. KL Rahul led the Indian squad towards victory in the first ODI.
The Indian team won the toss and chose to bowl first, and successfully dismissed The Australian squad for 276 runs in 50 overs, and fast bowler Mohammed Shami took a five-wicket haul. The men in blue later chased a target of 277 Runs in 50 overs.
Unfair to compare Shubman Gill to Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli: Gary Kirsten
The opening batsmen Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill became the highest scorers for the team as they scored 71 and 74 runs off 77 and 63 deliveries with a strike rate of 92.21 and 117.46. Later the team’s captain KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav scored 58 and 50 runs off 63 and 49 deliveries respectively and India won the game in 48.4 overs.
KL Rahul on India’s win in the 1st ODI against Australia
“Not the first time, always happens with me. I’m used to it, I love it. I think the intensity in the afternoon was great, after Colombo this felt like heaven in the start but it was really hot and humid. It gets tough and physically challenging, but we’ve all worked on our fitness and that’s showing on the field. We only played five bowlers, so they had to bowl 10 overs. After Shubman got out, it was a bit tricky with the set batter out. But managed to build a good partnership with Surya, need to put myself in such challenging situations. (On partnership with Surya) We kept talking about hitting good cricket shots, rotating the strike and this is something all our batters are working on. We didn’t want to get bogged down, we were always on par so we wanted to take it deep”, said KL Rahul.
