Australia and India meet in 50 over cricket for the first time since their World Cup semi-final over the next couple of weeks as they play out a five match ODI series which begins in Perth on Tuesday.
Australia are the world champions in this format of the game but we’ve seen them have their struggles against England since then and we know that they are a side in transition since lifting the World Cup early in 2015.
India made the semi-finals but failed to land a significant blow in that last four clash and while revenge would be the wrong word to use ahead of them participating in this series I’m sure they will want to show what they can do over these five games.
Australia have only played one ODI series in nine months so they might be a little rusty in this format of the game although most of their squad have been playing in the Big Bash in recent times so they will be used to giving it a bit of a biff. They are missing some key bowlers though which might keep India interested.
India have played three series since the World Cup and have lost two of them – to Bangladesh and South Africa so they will be looking for a strong performance to reaffirm their stronghold in this format of the game. Like Australia, India are missing some bowlers which is a concern.
Both sides are depleted with the ball so I expect this to be a high scoring series. I’m not convinced India play their best cricket in these conditions but given Australia are without Starc, Watson and obviously Johnson has retired they’re plenty short to win the series and that doesn’t really interest me.
I thought about backing Steve Smith to be the Top Australia Series Batsman but I like to get better value when I take captains and he isn’t really great value so I’ll leave that market alone and have my sole outright bet in the Indian equivalent market.
India have plenty of established household names in their batting line up and given how good he is Virat Kohli is a fair favourite in it but he’s a little short to me as I’m sure he’ll be the man the Australians target throughout the series.
You can make a case for the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and MS Dhoni but I just wonder if both will bat too low to be genuinely competitive over five matches. Shikhar Dhawan was an obvious consideration but his form is a little too streaky for my liking.
That leaves us with Rohit Sharma which is no problem because I really like him as an opener in this format. Sharma had a great World Cup where he was the top scorer for India and he followed that up with a quite brilliant 150 in an ODI against South Africa so we know he has all the quality in this format.
He also has good history in the conditions which not all the Indians have to that is another benefit for him and at a more than acceptable price of 7/2 for an opening batsman I’m happy to take the Mumbai Indians skipper to top score for the tourists in this series.
Back R.Sharma Top India Series Batsman for a 2/10 stake at 4.50 with Paddy Power
