India suffered a defeat at the hands of Australia in the final match of the three-match ODI series on Wednesday (22 March). The Steve Smith-led team beat India by 21 runs to break their unbeaten streak of 26 series at home. This was India’s first series defeat at home in four years. While the batters were held accountable for the two losses India incurred against Australia, which cost them the series, the spinners did not do great either.
Although Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel bagged three and two wickets respectively in the third ODI, an Indian fan felt that the Indian spinners did not bowl according to the field while their Australian counterparts did a great job. The fan pointed out how Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar bowled according to the field set by Steve Smith while Yadav failed to execute plans. The user also tagged former India leggie Laxman Sivaramakrishnan.
It was then the former spinner made a staggering claim about India's head coach Rahul Dravid. Sivaramakrishnan said that he offered to coach the Indian spinners but Dravid refused saying the former was too senior to work under him.
“I offered my services to Rahul Dravid and he said that I was too senior to him, to be working under him-with the spinners,” tweeted Laxman.
Notably, while Yadav and Axat took five wickets combined on a spin-friendly Chepauk track, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa shared six Indian wickets among themselves. It was not the number of wickets that made the difference but the batters dismissed and the junctures at which they were dismissed decided the fate of the game.
While Zampa dismissed Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill, and KL Rahul, Agar got rid of Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav. Four of these six wickets somehow tilted the game in Australia’s favour.
