Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan reckons KL Rahul’s wicket was the turning point in the third ODI against Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Wednesday. India was cruising in the run-chase of 270 as they were 146-2 at one stage.
Virat Kohli and KL Rahul had added 69 runs for the third wicket before the latter tried to take on Adam Zampa but Sean Abbott took a good catch at the long-on boundary. Subsequently, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, and Suryakumar Yadav were dismissed in quick succession as India lost four wickets for 39 runs.
Hardik Pandya scored a run-a-ball 40 but he was dismissed when he was forced to play a big shot with the required run rate going up.
Zaheer Khan said on Cricbuzz after India’s 21-run loss, “We were in the position to seal the game when Virat Kohli and KL Rahul’s partnership was building, and the way Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill started and Hardik Pandya upped the ante and batted with that strike rate on this kind of pitch shows that if you apply yourself, you can put bowlers under pressure.
“For the larger part of the chase, India were in control. I think KL Rahul’s wicket at that stage was the start of the turning point.”
Meanwhile, KL Rahul had a slow start to his innings and he was changing gears when he could not get the height on the shot against Zampa. India’s wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik, who was part of the same discussion, believes Rahul’s dismissal was shot in the arm for Australia.
“In these kinds of pitches, which are slightly slow, there will be phases where you don’t get boundaries. KL Rahul literally went from second gear to sixth gear. He got a six and a four but wanted to keep going with that momentum. He picked a ball which again could have easily been a six.
“But that shift in gear, there is a transient period in One-Day cricket where you are playing at a sedate pace and then you slightly but steadily take off. If you lose wickets in that phase, the momentum again goes to the bowling side. This happened consistently to us throughout our chase.”
India’s series loss in the home ODIs came after a long gap of four years. Indian players will now be seen in action in the forthcoming IPL.
