Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli couldn't fire in their comeback match while Shubman Gill couldn't start his ODI captaincy the way he started in Tests with the bat. (AP Photo)Shubman Gill’s tenure as India’s Test captain had started with a defeat and the same is the case for his start to captaincy in ODIs. India lost the first ODI to Australia by seven wickets in Perth. The match was heavily curtailed due to rain and Gill said that India could never really recover from the early loss of wickets.
“Never easy, when you lose three wickets in the powerplay, you’re always trying to play catch up. There were a lot of learnings and positives as well,” said Gill after the match, which was reduced to a 26-overs-a-side contest.
India had been put to bat first by Mitchell Marsh after he won the toss. All of the rain delays happened during the Indian innings but the visitors had lost their top three by the time the first of those came around. Apart from Gill, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, both playing their first game of cricket since the IPL in June this year, lost their wickets for cheap. Rohit was the first to fall, edging Josh Hazlewood’s fourth ball of the fourth over to second slip after having scored eight runs in 14 balls.
Kohli then went after a full ball outside off by Mitchell Starc in the seventh over and was caught quite spectacularly at backward point by Cooper Connolly. He fell for an eight-ball duck. Gill was strangled down the leg side first ball of the ninth over by Nathan Ellis.
This was India’s first defeat in ODIs in 2025, bringing their run of eight successive wins to an end. Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh, who scored an unbeaten 46 to guide his side to victory with 29 balls to spare, said chasing the DLS target of 131 was slightly challenging given that the ball was swinging a bit.
“The weather played its part today. Big thanks to all the crowd that stuck around. I know these days can be really frustrating, but nice to get a win. It’s always nice to win at home. I love playing for Australia. It (ball) was swinging around a little bit. We knew that was going to be the case for both teams, so a little bit of a challenge to get through there. Proud of the way our young guys came out and took the game on and got us over.
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