Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma hit a purple match in the three games but failed to bat in a quickfire fashion like Maxwell to make a match of it and stay in the series. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli scored runs but that was not enough against the mighty Australians. Dhawan made 68 of 91 balls whereas Maxwell made 96 of 83 balls to seal the series. That was the difference between the two sides. Even a run ball century of Kohli was not enough to make sure Team India putting up a good total. The absence of Ashwin was felt when the Australians were on the onslaught. He had the measure of Maxwell and dismissed him many times in the recent past. Maxwell bowled nine economical overs and took two catches in the outfield to show up that he is one of the finest all rounders in the side. Both G Singh Mann and R Dhawan were not penetrative and hence could not complete their quota of overs and appeared just passengers in the side. All the Australian batsmen added valuable runs to help out the chase in quick fashion, whereas Team India from a position of 2 for 243 lost 4 wickets adding 52 runs from the last 34 balls. Team India is in tatters and played without a plan from the start of the tour. Winning tour matches against weak opposition was the only achievement so far in the series. Team India needs a game plan from the beginning instead of just fighting back to the wall all the time.
S. Abhishek Ramaswamy
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
