Perth, October 19
Indian ODI and Test skipper Shubman Gill joined an unwanted list following the loss to Australia in the first ODI at Perth, becoming the second Indian skipper after Virat Kohli and overall ninth captain to lose their first matches in all three formats as captain.
Gill-led Team India lost by seven wickets in a rain-curtailed, 26-overs-per-side first ODI at Perth on Sunday. The return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fell flat as both batters departed in single digits, with the latter falling for an eight-ball duck. While India fought to score 136/9 in 26 overs, it was never enough to defend against the Mitchell Marsh-led Australian side, who now hold a 1-0 lead in the series.
Last year, after India's ICC T20 World Cup win, Gill captained Team India during a five-match T20I tour to Zimbabwe, wearing the national captaincy armband for the first time. The youngster started off with a 13-run loss to Zimbabwe while chasing 116, though India won the series 4-1.
This year, when Gill was handed the Test captaincy following the retirements of legends Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, Gill started the five-match tour to England with a five-wicket loss at Leeds, failing to defend 370-odd against the Three Lions.
Now, Gill has also lost his first ODI as captain at Perth.
Besides Gill and Kohli, the other players who lost all their first matches as captains in all formats are, New Zealand's Stephen Fleming, South Africa's Shaun Pollock, Sri Lanka's Tilakaratne Dilshan, New Zealand's Brendon McCullum, Pakistan's Mohammed Rizwan and West Indies' Jason Holder.
Coming to the match, India was put to bowl first by Australia after winning the toss. The top-order of Rohit Sharma (8), skipper Shubman Gill (10), Virat Kohli (0) and Shreyas Iyer (11) struggled against Mitchell Starc (1/22) and Josh Hazlewood (2/20).
Team India's rhythm was disrupted by numerous rain breaks, and the match was eventually turned into a 26-overs-per-side affair. However, a 39-run stand between KL Rahul (38 in 31 balls, with two fours and a six) and Axar Patel (31 in 38 balls, with three fours) proved to be a breather. KL took India past the 100-run mark, pairing up with Washington Sundar. It was Nitish Kumar Reddy (19* in 11 balls, with two fours) who took India to 136/9 in 26 overs.
Mitchell Owen and Matthew Kuhnemann also took two wickets.
In Australia's run chase of 131 runs, their revised target as per the DLS Method, India got Travis Head (8) early. However, Marsh (46 in 52 balls, with two fours and three sixes), Josh Phillipe (37 in 29 balls, with three fours and two sixes) and Matt Renshaw (21* in 24 balls, with a four and a six) made sure that Australia did not face much issues in their chase, chasing the total down in 21.1 overs with seven wickets in hand.
- ANI
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