India lost 4th ODI in a row and this is the first time India lost consecutive 4 ODI's since 2016. 


What and who is the reason behind this?

Can India need a 6th Bowler in the team?


Finally, after the wait of 290 days, India played their first ODI vs Australia but the result doesn't seem impressive.


Toss: Australia won the toss and opted to bat first.


Australian openers Warner and Finch had a great time after IPL 2020 and they posted an opening partnership of 156 runs. After Warner went for 69, Smith who came at No.3 posted 108 run stands with skipper and both Aaron Finch and Steven Smith scored centuries in the Match and it was Maxwell who has done the total damage by scoring 45 runs in just 19 balls. Finally, Australia posted a total of 374-6 and it was the highest total by Australia against India


Australia highest totals vs India:

374-6    Sydney,2020

359-2    Johannesburg,2003

359-5    Sydney,2004


In absence of India's best ODI opener Rohit Sharma, the Indian top-order struggled to attack Australia Short Balls. 

Mayank Agarwal mistimed the short ball and put in the hands of Maxwell at point

Virat Kohli playing an advanced shot off Hazlewood bowling was caught at midwicket.

Shreyas Iyer was not 100% sure to play shot against the short ball and it nicks his bat and went in the hands of Carey.

Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan rescued India posting 228 run stands for 5th wicket. Hardik Pandya registered his best score of 90 runs. After the dismissals of Hardik and Dhawan, there was no support for Jadeja at the other end and India lost by 66 runs.


Stat: Pandya best scores in ODI

90 vs Australia   Sydney,2020

83 vs Australia   Chennai,2017

78 vs Australia   Indore, 2017

76 vs Pakistan    The Oval, 2017


Interesting Stats:

Finch in IPL 2020: 268 runs in 12 matches

Finch in 1st ODI: 114(124)


Maxwell in IPL 2020: 108 runs in 13 runs. 0 sixes and SR of 101.88

Maxwell in IPL 2020: 45 runs in 19 balls. 3 sixes and SR of 236.84


Hazlewood in IPL 2020: 1 wicket in 3 matches

Hazlewood in 1st ODI: 3 wickets


Ok, lets' dive into Topic Can India need a 6th bowler in ODI's?

6th Bowler could be an extra bowling option when any player in the XI becomes injured or can replace the player who is leaking runs. If the 6th Bowler is an All-Rounder that's an added advantage of batting too.


Kohli has gone with 5 bowling options in most of his matches and has a 68.89% success rate in ODI's. Kohli has a great success rate in Captaincy in his initial days. From Sep 2017- Nov 2018, the Indian team bowled only 499.5 overs in 25 matches compared to the previous year they bowled 478.3 in 32 matches.


Joy Bhattacharya said "Lack of 6th bowler is Virat style of Captaincy"


The above stats suggest how the Indian team was most successful at that time. Inclusion of wrist spinners Chahal and Kuldeep, Bhuvi and Bumrah great form, Hardik Pandya All-round performances don't let Virat add 6th bowling option in the team. That becomes a habit for him and now this habit causing a lot of damage to the Indian team. If Virat includes the 6th bowling option it was Kedar Jadhav or Vijay Shankar. They also did well in critical situations.


Let's look at the previous 4 match bowling stats of India.


1st ODI vs Australia

Player Overs Runs Wickets Economy
Shami 10 59 3 5.9
Bumrah 10 73 1 7.3
Chahal 10 83 1 8.3
Saini 10 89 1 8.9
Jadeja 10 63 0 6.3

3rd ODI vs NZ

Player Overs Runs Wickets Economy
Thakur 9.1 87 1 9.5
Bumrah 10 50 0 5
Chahal 10 47 3 4.7
Saini 8 68 0 8.5
Jadeja 10 45 1 4.5

2nd ODI vs NZ
Player Overs Runs Wickets Economy
Thakur 10 60 2 6
Bumrah 10 64 0 6.4
Chahal 10 58 3 5.8
Saini 10 48 0 4.8
Jadeja 10 35 1 3.5


1st ODI vs NZ

Player Overs Runs Wickets Economy
Shami 9.1 63 2 6
Bumrah 10 53 0 6.4
Kuldeep 10 84 2 8.4
Thakur 9 80 1 8.9
Jadeja 10 64 0 6.4

In 1st ODI vs Australia, Chahal went for 89 runs, Bumrah went for 73 runs, Saini for 83 and Shami is successful with 59-3.

Stat: The most expensive figures by Indian Spinner in ODI(Chahal 89-1).


India lost the tour of NZ with 0-3 and 1st ODI vs Australia and the problem was the same. It was the lack of the 6th bowling option. In the middle overs, when Saini and Chahal were leaking runs, if there is another bowling option it would be great. However, Hardik was not fit enough to bowl, and stated he has long term goals to bowl in upcoming ICC Tournaments.

But it's also important to understand that there was no available 6th bowler in the squad. If the 6th bowler comes in the team he could replace Hardik or Agarwal. If Virat adds 6th bowler, it would affect the Indian batting lineup like Rahul moves to Top and Hardik, Jadeja plays up the order, and Thakur, Natarajan could come in. That's a very risky step. Everyone simply blames Virat if anything goes wrong.

The only possible step is that current Indian bowlers should perform whatever the situation it is. Let's look at stats of Indian bowlers after the World Cup Semi-Final

Player Matches Wickets BBI Average Economy
Shami 11 20 4/63 28.80 6.30
Jadeja 13 11 2/44 53.00 5.39
Kuldeep 9 11 3/52 44.72 6.00
Chahal 4 8 3/47 28.25 6.10
Saini 6 6 2/58 64.00 6.62

The Situation of Jasprit Bumrah is even worse. 2 wickets in 7 matches at an average of 180.0

Virat and Hardik expressed their disappointment over this stating they couldn't have a 6th bowler like Stoinis, Maxwell in their team.


Micheal Vaughan and Zaheer Khan also expressed their disappointment over the 6th Bowling option and Vaughan stated 


I think it's too early to judge the team and I am 100% sure India will bounce back and dominate Australia in every format and Every Indian player should transfer their great IPL form into International Cricket especially Indian bowlers. 


What's your thought on this and Comment on who could be the better 6th bowling option?


Stay tuned to CricGo11 and all these stats are posted after lot of research

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