Shubman Gill matches Virat Kohli’s unwanted record after India suffer seven-wicket defeat to Australia

Australia cruised to a seven-wicket win over India in the first ODI at Perth Stadium, making a strong start to the three-match series. In a rain-affected encounter, India were restricted to 136 in 26 overs. Australia, chasing a revised target of 121 under the DLS method, overhauled the total comfortably in 21.1 overs.

Stand-in skipper Mitchell Marsh anchored the chase with a composed 46* off 52 balls, guiding a relatively inexperienced Australian side to victory on home soil.

Meanwhile, the loss marked an unfortunate milestone for India’s new ODI captain Shubman Gill. The 24-year-old became only the second Indian captain after Virat Kohli to suffer defeats in his captaincy debuts across all three formats. 

India lost to Zimbabwe in Gill’s maiden T20I as captain, were beaten by England in his first Test in charge, and now Australia handed him his first ODI defeat as skipper.

Rohit, Kohli flop on international return

All eyes were on the dynamic duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as they made their return to international cricket against Australia. Having retired from Tests and T20Is, there was pressure on the duo to keep going to fight for a spot in the ODIs. However, they failed to make the most of the opportunity. 

Rohit, who was recently axed from ODI captaincy, made 14 runs in the middle while Kohli departed for a duck. The latter looked very rusty in the middle, and on top of that, he still seemed to struggle against the outside off-stump delivery.

Meanwhile, not just the veteran duo, but the returning Shreyas Iyer too failed to deliver in Perth. He made 11 runs in 24 balls before Josh Hazlewood sent him packing. Overall, the batting unit needs to get better to put any sort of pressure on Australia in the remaining two ODIs. The hosts missed several of their key players in the first ODI, but regardless, picked up a comfortable win in the middle.