"Lower order has started to bail us out" - Virat Kohli's coach on the marked change in Indian cricket

Former Delhi cricketer and Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma believes that India's current crop of quality all-rounders have ensured that even if the top-order fails, there's still a chance that the lower-order will score the required runs.

A fine example of this was seen during the first ODI against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The hosts were in a precarious situation at 83/5, chasing 189 runs to win. But a sensational 108-run partnership between KL Rahul (75*) and Ravindra Jadeja (45*) fetched them the win.

Speaking to India News after the first ODI, here's what Rajkumar Sharma had to say about the contributions of all-rounders like Ravindra Jadeja and others of late:

"One change that you can see in Indian cricket is that our lower order has started to bail us out when the top order hasn't fired. This wasn't the case a few years ago as we always felt we had a top-heavy batting with Rohit, Shikhar and Virat.

"The top order hasn't fired in the past couple of years consistently, but we are lucky that all rounders like Jadeja, Ashwin and Axar have bailed us out."

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Rajkumar Sharma on India's struggle with left-arm pacers

Australian speedster Mitchell Starc once again exposed India's long-lying problem of facing quality left-arm pacers. Starc was bang on the money in his first spell, picking up three wickets to reduce the hosts to 39/4.

Rajkumar Sharma feels this is a recurring issue that the top order needs to sort out quickly. He stated:

"We have seen that when our batters play quality left-arm seamers who swing the ball, they struggle. This is happening for a long time, but I am sure the team management must be thinking of ways to solve this. They even look to pick 1-2 left-arm pacers so that the players get used to the angle in nets."

It will be interesting to see if the hosts put up a better batting performance in the second ODI of the series in Vizag on Sunday.