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Australia vs India ODIs:5 Focus Point To Look Forward




The Very Hot India Vs Australia ODI Series Will Take  Off Today. A Head Of T-20 World Cup This Series Is Going To  Be Perfect Boost Up Platform For Both The Teams To Look For Their Loop Holes And Tighten Them Up. As The Former World Champions India head into the five-match series with the World Cup winners, lets have a look at the Top 5 Focus Point We All Will Be Looking Towards.

#1 Where will Rahane bat?









(AFP Photo)

Ajinkya Rahane was left out of the ODI team during the tour of Bangladesh in June last year, with MS
Dhoni publicly admitting that it was a harsh yet justified decision. Rahane was dropped for the second ODI, following a score of nine in 25 balls when India were chasing over 300 in the first match, and Dhoni said that Rahane's struggles when there was less pace on the surface meant he was not able to
 rotate the strike freely.

Rahane's next opportunity in ODIs came in the tour of Zimbabwe in July 2015, and since then his scores in the format read 34, 63, 15, 60, 51, 4, 45 and 87 at a strike-rate of 86.09. That last innings of 89 came off 58 balls, incidentally.

In those five ODIs against South Africa, Rahane batted at Nos 3 (twice), 6 and 4 (twice) which gave those of us watching mixed and frankly muddled messages. In Australia last year, during the tri-series that preceded the World Cup, he batted at No 3 once and then opened in the next three matches. Come the World Cup, and he was used at No 7 once and No 4 thrice. In the upcoming five ODIs, it remains to be seen which place the management uses Rahane - at third of fourth.

#2 Focus on Jadeja-the allrounder

(AFP Photo)

Back in the squad after being dropped in mid-2015, the Indian team will hope Jadeja channels his recent domestic and Test match form into the ODI format. The allrounder enjoyed a superb return to the Test format in India's 3-0 win over South Africa at home, but will not find that sort of assistance on Australian pitches.

Nevertheless, he is in red-hot form and should slot back into the XI at No 7 - Axar Patel will make way in this case - and will be expected to bowl his full quota of ten overs to allow India to play five specialist bowlers. Jadeja's numbers aren't too encouraging in Australia: 11 wickets from 16 ODIs at an average of 57.27, strike-rate of 66 and economy of 5.19. Maybe a renewed character will spark a change?

#3 Barinder Sran the X-factor?

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'Barry' - as Shikhar Dhawan revealed the 23-year-old fast bowler from Punjab is called in the Indian camp - is the youngest of India's squad and, on the basis of his bowling in the two warm-ups, looks the likeliest to get a maiden ODI cap. Being a left-armer gives Sran an added advantage, considering the rest of India's pace attack is made up of right-handers.

In the Twenty20 practice came against a Western Australia XI, Sran claimed 2/24 in four overs and in the 50-overs-a-side fixture he bowled economically across seven overs - both times getting to open the bowling. Sean bowled at good pace and one of his wickets came from a short ball that climbed onto D'Arcy Short, which left India's bowling coach Bharat Arun to speak highly of his potential. With Mohammed Shami having flown home with a recurrence of an injury, it could be that Sran gets the nod ahead of the replacement, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

#4 Will uncapped allrounders get a chance?

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Among India's 15-man squad are two young domestic allrounders who have yet to be capped: Gurkeerat Singh of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh's Rishi Dhawan. Gurkeerat, 25, was Punjab's top run-getter in the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy with 677 from 14 innings at 56.41. That was followed by a limp IPL, but two impressive one-day matches for India A got the selectors' nod for the ODI squad against South Africa last year.

He also traveled with the Test team, and fielded as a substitute in Mohali. Dhawan, also 25, has been a consistently successful performer for Himachal over the past few years and his maiden call-up is reward for domestic form. Most recently, he helped Himachal to the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy with 302 runs at an average of 100.66 and strike-rate of 102.72 as well as nine wickets. Both offer exciting all-round options but with R Ashwin and Jadeja sure to play, and Axar with prior international success, it remains to be seen whether either gets an opportunity.

#5 Wanted: A fitting farewell for Dhoni


(AFP Photo)

In what will be his final tour of Australia, can Dhoni lead India to success against a depleted home team? Dhoni, visibly leaner with an entire year lapsed since he quit Test cricket, remains in charge of the ODI and T20 teams but Virat Kohli's success as Test captain has fuelled thoughts that he should be given the reins of at least one of the two limited-overs sides.

Dhoni is 34, and has admitted to the need to stay fit to keep going at international level. In the narrow ODI series loss to South Africa, Dhoni made 212 runs in five innings with one fifty - a power-packed 92* that helped India to a match-winning total in the second match - and most recently, turning out for Jharkhand in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for the first time since the 2004-05 season, he did little of note in six matches. Just one fifty, an unbeaten 70 from 106 balls in the quarter-final loss in which only two team-mates made it to double-digits.

There have been calls for Dhoni to bat up the order - the aforementioned 92 came from the No 5 spot - and with Suresh Raina dropped, there is logic in getting India's captain a place higher. And yet that will expose one of the rookies at No 6, something India may not want, considering it was Dhoni himself who during the South Africa ODIs admitted it was not a slot he wanted to expose less experienced players to. It promises to be a spot worth keeping an eye on.



source:timesofindia
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