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Gautam Gambhir, fans slam Kohil’s captaincy for 0-2 ODI defeat in Australia tour

With India losing two One-day International matches back to back in its tour of Australia, captain of the Indian cricket team and its coach has come under scrutiny for delivering defeat to the nation.

Australia claimed the 3-match ODI series by clutching onto the first two matches with not many hurdles in its home ground. The team pitched itself onto the trophy after winning against India by 51 runs, with one more game yet to be played.

The matches, held at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday, put the garland in the homeland team’s neck as it dominated its guests in the starting two matches, giving a major blow to the Indian team.

Indian fans were evidently not pleased with their team’s performance as the bowlers in the two matches have been criticized for their gameplay. With Australian batsmen comfortably hitting over 370 runs each time for their country, Virat Kohil and his captaincy has garnered a lot of questions.

Adding to the list of questioners was former Indian opening batsman, Gautam Gambhir. He seemed confused with Kohil’s choice of changing the bowlers midway during the match without letting the leading players bowl even 3 overs each.

The “bizarre” strategies of the Indian skipper joint with the advice of coach Ravi Shastri were brutally thrashed on social media as fans had high hopes with the team.

ESPNCricInfo posted a video of the former cricketer saying, “I can’t understand the captaincy to be honest. We kept talking about how important it was to take wickets upfront, if you have to stop this kind of batting line-up and then you make your premier bowler bowl two overs.”

He added, “Normally, in a one-day game, probably there are three spells and you finish 10 overs — 4,3,3 — or probably the maximum is four overs. But if you stop your premier fast bowler just by bowling two overs upfront with the new ball, I can’t understand that kind of captaincy and I can’t even explain that captaincy.”

Highlighting the difference between a T20 and an ODI match, Gautam Gambhir called the bowling changes that led to the loss as “poor captaincy” as even during T20 cricket in some instances, bowlers are allowed to bowl 3 overs, he said.

Anger driven fans slammed the current situation of Indian cricket while directing their loaded guns towards the defeat combo of Kohli-Shastri. Many users publicized their opinions about letting Rohit Sharma become in charge of the team, crowning him with the title of a captain.

‘Down Under’, India’s tour of Australia began shaping into its worst form from the start itself as visitors of the host country got outplayed with 51 runs.

Australia seemed determined and boosted with confidence in the first ODI against India post the precovid era as their batsmen remained adamant on pushing their team to an easy win while Indian bowlers looked on.

Neither Jasprit Bumrah nor other premier bowlers like Mohammed Shami and Yuzvendra Chahal could unleash their magic on the Australian ground.

India will face Australia again in its last ODI of the 3-match series in Canberra after which, a 3-match T20 International and a 4-Test series will kickstart.