Former Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma could not be stopped from captaining the Australian national cricket team in the second ODI of three consecutive matches against the Australian national cricket team.
India faced Australia in the second ODI at Adelaide Oval and lost by two wickets, giving Mitchell Marsh’s side a series win with one match to spare.
Rohit Sharma’s captaincy instincts carry over in Adelaide
Ahead of the Australia tour, Shubman Gill replaced Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI captain. In a press conference, chief selector Ajit Agarkar justified the move by saying he wants to give Shubman Gill time to get used to the role ahead of the 2027 World Cup.
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Shubman Gill started his ODI captaincy with the heavy defeat against Australia in Perth, but the team’s performance did not improve in the second match.
Openers Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli failed miserably and Rohit Sharma scored 73 runs off 97 balls. Shreyas Iyer also performed well with 61 runs and Axar Patel also chipped in with 44 runs as India posted 264/9.
Defending the total, the Indian bowlers initially did a good job, but the inexperienced Australian batsmen played a positive brand of cricket and took the match away from India.
During the bowling innings, Rohit Sharma performed some leadership duties even though he was no longer playing that role. He was seen guiding the bowlers and talking to Shubman Gill, and several clips of the moments went viral on social media.
In one video, Rohit Sharma was seen lecturing Washington Sundar to improve his line and length while bowling Cooper Connolly after the 33rd, while Gill was seen behind him busy preparing the field for the next over.
Rohit Sharma was also seen explaining the plan to Arshdeep Singh with Shubman Gill standing next to him before the start of the 47th and final over.
“The key for a left-handed off-spinner is to keep the ball away from the batsman and bowl a little slower. Usually the captain comes in and tells the bowlers what to do…” said former India fast bowler Varun Aaron, looking at Rohit’s actions in commentary.
Video: Rohit Sharma guides Indian bowlers
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Happy to beat India – Adam Zampa
Australia’s best leg-spinner, Adam Zampa, made his comeback with figures of 4/60 bowling against India in Adelaide and won the Player of the Match award.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Adam Zampa expressed his happiness at the series victory over India. He elaborated:
“I’m happy to beat India. It’s always been a good battle against them, especially in one-day cricket. In India too, we’ve always tested them and they’ve come here and tested us from time to time. Two teams that have adapted well to the conditions. They’re the best team in the world. They’ve been going for a while now. So it will be great to test ourselves against them.”
“They (pacers) have been in control of the power play for a long time, so I’m very grateful and lucky. And we’ve had guys like Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis come in and do their jobs in the midfield. That makes it a lot easier in the midfield. The beauty of Mitch (Marsh) is that he’s calm and relaxed and never gets too emotional. We put on our own show out there with the ball.”
Also read: Virat Kohli is No. 1, Rohit Sharma is at the bottom! Ravi Shastri named top 5 Indian ODI cricketers