As the new captain of the Indian cricket team, Shubman Gill walked out in the middle for the toss ahead of the 3-match series opener against Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth, all eyes were strained on the coin. And to no one's surprise, it landed in favour of the stand-in Australian skipper, Mitchell Marsh.
The reason why it was to the surprise of none is that India has made it their unintentional habit of losing tosses, especially in ODIs. It seems that the law of averages has gone out of the window when it comes to the Indian skipper winning a toss.
In the last 16 One-Day Internationals, India have only ever lost the toss. The last time an Indian captain had the authority to decide to bat or field ahead of an ODI game was way back in November 2023 in the semifinal of the Cricket World Cup in Mumbai vs New Zealand. Since then, multiple bilateral face-offs and a whole ICC Champions Trophy tournament later, Shubman Gill-led India lost the toss to Australia, who chose to bowl first.
As it turns out, it was the right decision as the Aussie quicks were able to reduce India to 25/3 in the powerplay, dismantling India's top order with relative ease. The big news from the middle was the return to International cricket for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Still, keeping true to Pat Cummins' spirit of silencing a crowd that's in anticipation, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood respectively sent the duo back to the pavilion for scores of 8 and 0. Soon after, Nathan Ellis got the wicket of the newly appointed skipper, Shubman Gill.
Also Read: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill combine to script unwanted record in ODIs
The recent rivalry between the two teams has been neck-and-neck, with India having a slight edge in ODIs since 2020, winning 8 to Australia's 7. Furthermore, India's last bilateral series win in ODIs against Australia Down Under was a 2-1 victory. Back then, India had scripted a comeback in the last 2 matches after losing the first one. And by the way things are going in this one up till now, India might have to repeat the feat again.
