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Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli disappointed on ODI return, managing a combined 8 runs between them on Sunday.
Virat Kohli was out for a duck on ODI return. (AFP Photo)
India were outplayed in their first match of the Australia tour on Sunday as they suffered a seven-wicket defeat in the rain-affected ODI held in Perth. The contest suffered multiple delays during India’s innings and was eventually reduced to a 26-overs-a-side contest.
India suffered a top-order collapse with their top four batters managing 29 runs between them. It was a highly anticipated contest as two white-ball giants, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, made their long-awaited competitive return.
However, instead of a flurry of boundaries, disappointment was in store for the duo with Rohit managing eight before being snuffed out by Josh Hazlewood, while Kohli failed to open his account for an eight-ball duck, becoming Mitchell Starc’s lone victim of the contest.
Given their pedigree and previous history of scoring plenty of runs against Australia, the celebrations were relatively muted from the hosts. Shreevats Goswami, a former India U19 cricketer and an IPL teammate of Kohli, felt that the Aussies knew that both Rohit and Kohli would be rusty given their absence from any form of cricket for nearly five months.
Goswami said, had the pair been playing cricket regularly, the reactions would have been quite different. “Also, if you look carefully at the celebration for both wickets, it wasn’t anything over the top ’cause the Australians knew both were coming back after a long gap. With both Kohli & Rohit in form and playing continuous cricket, celebrations would have been different. Small, small things matter,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Also if you look carefully at the celebration for both wickets, it wasn’t anything over the top cause the Australians knew both were coming back after a long gap. With both Kohli & Rohit in form and playing continuous cricket, celebrations would have been different . Small small… https://t.co/3IhL1pRq57— Shreevats goswami (@shreevats1) October 19, 2025
India were struggling at one stage before Axar Patel (31), KL Rahul (38) and Nitish Reddy (19*) lifted them to a decent 136/9 in 26 overs.
The target was revised to 131 as per DLS and proved insufficient as the world champions chased it down comfortably in 21.1 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
The second ODI will be played on Thursday in Adelaide.
Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital…Read More
Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital… Read More
October 20, 2025, 14:55 IST
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