An astounding 1,75,000 tickets already sold for a white-ball bilateral series, according to Cricket Australia’s Friday press release. At a time when ODI cricket is fighting for relevance — more so the context-less, bilateral 50over variety — the interest around the series starting at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday is quite a pleasant surprise for lovers of the format.But then, is the hype around the series all about the game or about two individuals instead? If you happen to listen to India’s new ODI captain Shubman Gill’s match-eve press conference on a sunny Perth afternoon, you’ll know.
Every second question was about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, about their presence and utility in a team which is taking its first steps towards preparing for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa. “They are players with immense experience and quality. Doesn’t matter what the outside narrative is, I look up to them and take their help whenever necessary,” Gill said, not putting a foot wrong in his first interaction as the new ODI captain.The visuals from practice also suggest that the two white-ball legends are in good mood and form, ready to savour the remains of the day. But come Sunday, the challenge for the duo will be immense, given the time they have spent away from cricket and the quality of the Australian pace attack.
The Perth pitch, even at its best, will have enough pace and bounce to catch one off guard. More so if there is a Mitchell Starc and a Josh Hazlewood in the opposition lineup. If Starc can get the ball to swing a bit, he will almost invariably trouble Rohit. What will be interesting to see is whether the pressure of ‘perform or perish’, a situation that Rohit hasn’t faced during his captaincy days, curbs his natural instinct to go hammer and tongs right from the word go.Virat, meanwhile, will remember his struggles outside the off-stump late last year in Australia against the red-ball, a phase that ultimately cost him his Test career. The Aussie pacers will look to hit the same channel and may just have a slip in place early on to remind the 51-ton man that they can boss him with the white ball as well. But then, ODIs are Kohli’s playing field and the outcome of these duels may just give us an early indication how long we will see the modern master play.
Will Kuldeep find a place?While all the talk has been around ‘RoKo’, there are a few other issues that need to be settled. With Hardik Pandya not there, India’s hands may be forced to play three specialist pacers, even if Nitish Reddy gets the nod as the allrounder who bowls a little bit of medium pace. Given India’s inclination to go with eight batters across formats, there could be a case where both Axar Patel and Washington Sundar play and Kuldeep Yadav misses out despite him excelling across formats lately.Good test for pacersThe Australian ODI batting lineup doesn’t look the strongest, especially after the retirement of Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell and Josh Inglis and Cameron Green’s injuries. That should allow the Indian pace attack, which will be without Jasprit Bumrah, a little bit of breathing space.Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh look likely to be in the XI and it would be interesting to see if Harshit Rana gets the nod ahead of Prasidh Krishna. For them, getting captain Mitchell Marsh, who has been in good form of late, early would be the key to put the brakes on the Aussies.
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New challenge for ShreyasAnother Indian player whose performance will be followed with some interest is Shreyas Iyer. He has been made the vice-captain, which suggests that the team management wants to give him a long rope. The Mumbai batter has had his struggles against the short ball, but he will try to show the world that such ghosts have been well and truly buried.
