Aakash Chopra shares his thoughts on Australia’s batting performance in first ODI

Following the end of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India and Australia now take each other on in a three-match ODI series, the first match of which was played on Friday, March 17. The hosts won the toss in the first match and elected to field first.

The Aussies got off to a sub-par start as Travis Head was dismissed early courtesy of Mohammed Siraj. It was the 31-year-old Mitchell Marsh who came through for the visitors and played a fabulous knock of 81 runs off 65 deliveries. The rest of the batting line-up of Australia could not amount to anything much, and the visitors were bundled out for 188 runs.

Former India batter Aakash Chopra recently came forward to give his take on Australia’s batting display. He opined that except Marsh, no other batter was able to put up an impressive performance as wickets kept falling at the other end.

"David Warner and Alex Carey were not available for Australia, but the batting looked slightly 50-50. How will it work out if it happens on such pitches? Mitchell Marsh hit, he batted extremely well, but the wickets kept falling from the other end," Aakash Chopra said in a video on his YouTube channel.

"Mitchell Marsh scored 81, and the entire team scored 188. You say there is a lot of depth in batting and the entire team drowned in that depth. When 188 runs are scored, you feel they are less, but when you see the pitch, you think there is some problem as the opposition team have scored only 188," he added.

KL Rahul’s rejuvenation helps India secure win

As India came in to chase the target, Mitchell Starc made sure that the hosts did not chase the target with ease. Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Suryakumar Yadav were all dismissed early as the pressure mounted on India.

It was courtesy of brilliant knocks from KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja that led them to a fabulous win. Rahul, who had been struggling to find his form recently, came through for his side and scored a brilliant and unbeaten 75-run knock, clinching the win for India.