Team India’s debutant T Natarajan picked his first One-Day International (ODI) wicket as he scalped Australian opener Marnus Labuschagne in the third ODI in Canberra, Australia on Wednesday. Playing his first match in blue, Natarajan bowled Labuschagne out in the sixth over.
Earlier on Wednesday, Natarajan received his ODI cap (Cap number 232) from skipper Virat Kohli. Team India posted 302 for five wickets as they batted first in the match. After India seemed to be in a spot of bother at 152 for the loss of 5 wickets in the 32nd over, the dynamic duo of Ravindra Jadeja (66 not out for 50 balls) and Hardik Pandya (92 not out for 76 balls) came to the rescue and pulled the team past the 300-run mark. Captain Kohli scored 63 runs off 78 balls, thus crossing the 12,000-run mark in his ODI career.
For Australia, Ashton Agar scalped two wickets while Abbott, Zampa and Hazlewood took one wicket each.
Team India has already lost the ODI series having suffered defeats in the previous two games down under in the three-match series against Australia. The first two games turned out to be run-fests in which Australia out-batted Virat Kohli's men. Skipper Kohli admitted that they have been "outplayed" in the two games and needed corrective measures in order to get their campaign back on track.
India’s bowling has been found wanting in the first two matches. Navdeep Saini, one of India's fastest bowlers, like a lot of others on his first tour of Australia, has looked clueless. Such has been his plight that Kohli was forced to bowl a half-fit (bowling-wise) Hardik Pandya and even Mayank Agarwal to complete Saini's spell after he gave away 70 runs in seven overs in the second ODI on Sunday, which India lost by 51 runs. It was expected that Shardul Thakur or Natarajan will replace Saini in the third ODI and skipper Kohli went with Natarajan.
Natarajan, with his clever variations and change of pace, is expected to provide a different dimension, as the cutters might work well and a bit of swing may be on offer. Just prior to this series, Natarajan had a fairly successful Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign where he picked up 16 wickets from as many matches.