Eyebrows were raised when Mahendra Singh Dhoni named the XI for the opening one-dayer against Australia at the toss.

After complaining about the quality of pacers all through his team’s forgettable Champions Trophy campaign, the captain had still persisted with the same set of new-ball bowlers who had not been collectively effective in South Africa. The situation was puzzling since the two freshly drafted pacers, Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagi, who came in the side after their fine show on the domestic circuit, were on the sidelines.

By noon, as Australia scored 292, it was an Indian bowling innings that had a familiarity about it. As has been the case in recent games, the pacers failed to perform as a group. Few good spells were not enough to restrict the Aussies as there was always an expensive over round the corner to ease the pressure.

A mere glance at the scoreboard brought back memories of India’s bowling efforts in the Champions Trophy. Ashish Nehra again got the early breakthrough but there wasn’t even a minor collapse after that. Several fruitful partnerships between the Aussie batsmen made sure that they were always within striking distance of the 300 mark. Eventually, they fell short by 8 runs as Ishant Sharma conceded just one run in the final over of the innings.

As a rule, the Indian bowling department has unfailingly stuck to the one ‘off-day’ regulation of late. If it was Ishant Sharma in the Champions Trophy, today it was Praveen Kumar. The UP pacer bowled well with the new ball but after the shine faded, so did he. Eventually, he conceded 77 runs from his 10 overs and that meant the Aussies had a great start to the series despite a fine show by the other bowlers.

... contd.