India's tour of Australia was off to a worst start possible with Virat Kohli and Co. conceding the first two games by big margin to lose the ODI series 0-2 with a match to go. Since the IPL 2020 ended, the focus solemly has been on the four-match Test series, which starts from December 17 in Adelaide, especially with skipper Kohli's absence in the last three Tests.
However, not gaining early momentum with losses make India's road to success in the series tougher and now the team is in dire need to react positively in the dead rubber in Cannabera on Wednesday, followed by the three-match T20I series.
The performance has led to severe criticism from all the quarters, mostly directed at Virat Kohli's captaincy and team's bowling performances in both the games.
While the team conceded close to 750 runs in the couple of games played in Sydney, lack of sixth bowling option was felt heavily with Kohli turing to an unfit Hardik Pandya to chip in with few overs.
Former Indian cricketers Ashish Nehra and Gautam Gambhir didn't hold back from pointing out the glaring mistakes Kohli made with his captaincy call during the games, especially criticising the habit of frequently changing the bowlers.
Amid all the criticism, Indian middle-order batsman Shreyas took to Twitter to buoy up the fans saying despite two games the team will come back stronger.
Individually, Shreyas is not having a best of Australia tour himself as the right-handed batsman has managed just 40 runs so far while batting at no.4 ahead of KL Rahul. However, the batsman did found some form in the last game with a 36-ball 38, laced with five boundaries, after scoring just 2 runs in the first game.
In both the games, Iyer's weakness against short deliveries was exposed. In the first game, the batsman nudged a quick bouncer late only to find it safely land into the hands of Alex Carey behind the stumps. In the second game, the batsman threw away his wicket, in his attempt to find a gap through cow corner of a slow bouncer by Moises Henriques. Steve Smith took his catch on the mid wicket while diving to his left. His wicket fell at a crucial juncture after he built a 72-run stand with skipper Kohli.
