India took advantage of the unavailability of in-form opener David Warner, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc as Australia rested them for the final ODI.

It was Australia’s first bilateral ODI series win at home since 2016-17 against Pakistan. It was Australia’s last ODI series at home this year. The next ODI series is scheduled to be a short tour to West Indies in the middle of 2021.

With the series win, Australia moved to the top of the ICC Men’s Cricket team ranking. Australia earned 40 points while India gained 9 points with the last game win.

The Aussies had defeated England 2-1 in their previous series of the 13-team championship. England are second in the points table with 30 points.

Great performances from the Australian top order were the chief reason for Australia’s win. Aaron Finch and David Warner scored more than 400 runs in their three partnerships.

The hard-hitting openers this year alone have four-century partnerships (three in three matches at the SCG).

Man-of-the-Series Steven Smith was the main difference between the two teams and it was proved in the third ODI when Australia lost when Smith failed to score big. Smith had scored centuries in the first two ODIs.

Glenn Maxwell, one of the most aggressive batsmen of modern era, played a vital role in the home side victories. In three matches he scored 167 runs at an average of 83.50 and an incredible strike rate of 194.18. In the last six ODI innings, he scored 353 runs at 70.6 and a strike-rate of 148.41.

Surprisingly, Australian fast bowlers didn’t deliver as expected. It was one of the worst series for fast bowler Mitchell Starc as he took only one wicket in two matches, conceding 147 runs with an unexpectedly high economy rate of 8.16.

When the fast bowlers didn’t deliver as expected, it was leg-spinner Adam Zampa who came to the team’s rescue. He remained the most successful Australian bowler with seven wickets in the series.

On the other hand, again it was bowling that becomes a cause of India’s defeat in the first two ODIs. India conceded 374 and 389 in the first two games, leaving their batsmen unrealistic targets to chase against a strong home side.

India’s ace fast bowler Japsrit Bumrah was not at his best in the series. He took four wickets in the series, conceding 195 runs, averaging 48.75 with an unusual economy rate of 6.60. Bumrah has now taken just five wickets in last nine ODIs this year.

The problem India are facing is that their fast bowlers are failing to strike in the early overs. Before the third ODI against Australia, Indian bowlers had taken only three powerplay wickets in eight ODIs this year.

Since the start of the last year, only Scotland and Bangladesh have a worse bowling average than India’s 51.52 inside the first ten overs. India have played more ODI cricket over this period than any other side. Out of 36 bowling innings, they have been wicket-less in 15 powerplays.

Bhuveneshwar Kumar’s absence also hurt India. Bhuvneshwar has played 19 of 36 matches since 2019. In the 17 matches that Kumar was not part of, India picked up just eight wickets in powerplay.

On flat pitches - which is the norm in ODIs - India have too many holes: no extreme pace, no attacking bowlers who can take a couple of wickets in quick succession.

India became the best ODI side in recent years thanks mainly to their bowling, especially in the middle-overs through the magic of wrist spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Out of the 27 ODIs that Bhuveneshwar, Chahal and Yadav have played together, India have won 20.

Following their series defeat to Australia, Indian skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain KL Rahul both admitted that the team needs to get better on flat batting wickets.

During the third ODI, Indian skipper Virat Kohli completed his 12,000 ODI runs. He has scored 43 centuries and 60 fifties at an average of 59.48 and a strike rate of 93.38.

Kohli become the fastest batsman to reach the milestone - he did it in just 242 innings, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar who took 300 matches to reach there. Kohli is only the sixth player to reach the milestone. The other five are Sachin Tendulkar (18,426 in 463 ODIs), Kumar Sangakkara (14,234 in 404 ODIs), Ricky Ponting (13,704 in 375 ODIs), Sanath Jayasuriya (13,430 in 445 ODIs) and Mahela Jayawardene (12,650 in 448 ODIs).

Australian captain Aaron Finch was the top scorer of the ODI series with 249 runs, including one hundred and two fifties (average 83 and strike rate of over 90). Player-of-the-series Steven Smith scored 216 runs at an average of 72.

For India, Hardik Pandya was the most successful batsman with 210 runs, at an average of 105 with two half-centuries.

Australian spinner Adam Zampa took seven wickets at an average of 23. For India, Mohammad Shami and Bumrah took four wickets each, averaging 33 and 48.75, respectively.

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