JOIN USAmong the three changes India made for the fourth ODI versus Australia was to rest in-form pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah and play Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. That move didn’t bear the intended result as the hosts conceded 334 runs — highest of the series so far.
India skipper Virat Kohli defended the decision saying they had to try the others in the squad at some stage. “We’ve won the series and you have to try guys out at some stage. You need to test your bench strength as well and you need to give those guys game time.
“I think Umesh bowled well, even Shami bowled well. Umesh even picked up four wickets and it (runs) would have been a bit more than what he would have expected himself. But we only lost by 20-odd runs in the end,” said the Indian skipper.
“So we didn’t bat that badly. I think the wicket was really good to bat on and from that point of view you have to give them a bit of advantage there. But on hindsight, if you lose, I’m not someone who sits and thinks maybe I shouldn’t have done this. You try, you go for something, if it doesn’t work make another plan and you go for it again, putting all your belief in it. That’s exactly what I think and what the whole squad thinks.”
Australia coach David Saker said the team is relieved to have finally got a win. “It was nice to win. I think we had some opportunities in the first two games to probably get one win and we didn’t.
“And against an opposition like this you’ve to really play well and when the opportunities come up, you’ve got to seize them. We didn’t do that. To be fair today, it wasn’t one of our great performances. But we ended up getting the points which, for me is a relief, but the boys in there are really happy as well that they’ve got something out of it.”