India vs Australia: India Have to Turn it Around in Sydney, Or This Could Be a Long Tour

One One-Day International match into the tour, and there's already talks - and even signs - that this could be a long couple of months for the Indian team. Such was Australia's dominance in the first match that there are already questions on India's balance and depth. It's now up to Virat Kohli and co to turn that around, for if they don't the series would be gone. And if there is any importance to 'momentum', the rest of the tour will be in danger as well.

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Little went right for India in Sydney on Friday. They bowled poorly, with their attack too unidimensional. They dropped catches and misfielded. Their top order failed, before Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan threatened to make a match out of it for a while. And they have only a day's time to turn it around.

The bowling, first. India's new ball bowling has been an issue in the last one and a half years. Yet again, they didn't take a wicket in the first 10 overs. Actually, they didn't for 27.4 overs! David Warner and Aaron Finch looked largely comfortable and set the tone for the game with a 156-run stand. Steve Smith enjoyed himself with a 62-ball ton. Glenn Maxwell found form with a cameo.

And to top it, India has a bowling worry with Yuzvendra Chahal walking off the field with an injury. He went for 89 in his 10 overs - the most expensive spell by an Indian in ODIs, but he's still a wicket taking ODI bowler who will be missed if he's not around. Kuldeep Yadav could get a chance if that's the case.

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India will need to strike with the new ball, but for that, they don't have massive swing bowlers. Missing Bhuvnesheshwar Kumar? The other pace options are Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan, who too are not exactly known for their swinging ability.

And none of these bowlers are known for their batting abilities, which affects India's batting depth. The vice-versa scenario means India are facing balance issues.

Now to the batsmen. There's little they could have done chasing such a huge target than go for it from ball 1, which is what they did. However, while some connected well briefly, their issues with short balls were exposed.

Mayank Agarwal looked in glorious touch, but a rising delivery from Josh Hazlewood was too much for him to handle. Kohli walked in with purpose and began taking charge - the flick six off Pat Cummins standing out - but he perished in the same mood when he walked down the track to another Hazlewood short ball. And then Shreyas Iyer, who looked like a sitting duck against Hazlewood's bouncer. There will be more of the same on Sunday given the way he got out.

KL Rahul got out to a full toss, while Shikhar Dhawan took the game deep. The biggest positive from the game for India was Hardik Pandya's batting, the batsman slamming 90 off 76. Hardik's inability to bowl due to the injury raised questions on his place as a pure batsman, but such voices have been put at bay.

As for Australia, there's little for them to worry about other than Marcus Stoinis' injury. He hurt his leg while bowling, which means they'll look for Cameron Green.

Squads:

India Squad: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul(w), Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Agarwal, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill, T Natarajan

Australia Squad: Aaron Finch(c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade, Sean Abbott, Andrew Tye, Cameron Green, Daniel Sams

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