Virat Kohli-led Indian team, which has been packed with the mixtures of experienced and promising young faces, has recorded a flawed opening against Australia in the first ODI match that was held on Friday in Sydney. It was the first ODI match for India after the team's legendary captain MS Dhoni had announced his retirement and after the conclusion of the IPL 2020. 

Following the Indian Premier League, the Indian team had come together with the picks of the young performs of IPL and it straightly had flown to Australia to meet one of the all-time best cricket teams. Kohli's fleet of men-in-blue has been touring to play three ODIs, three T20s, and four tests. India took on Australia on Friday in Sydney for the first ODI. 

The host, Australia, won the toss and let India bowl first. With the bowling line up of Shami, Bumrah, Saini, Chahal, and Jadeja, India took to the field only to witness major destructions from the Aussie batsman. Aussies opened their innings with David Warner and Aaron Finch and both the batsman had unleashed their might from the beginning. In-form Warner and one of the dangerous openers Aaron Finch had put over 150 runs in the opening partnership. 

Shami had given a breakthrough for India after taking the wicket of David Warner in the 28th over. With the strong opening partnership of 156 runs, Steve Smith had come to the crease and punished the Indian bowlers. The bowling line-up of men in blue had suffered damage after Smith was unstoppable. Steve Smith had scored 105 runs off 66 balls including eleven fours and four sixes. Though Marcus Stoinis fell in Chahal's ball for a golden duck, Maxwell did a fantastic cameo role by scoring 45 runs off 19 balls including five fours and three sixes. 

In the end, Australia had put 374 runs by losing six wickets. Indian bowling line-up had seen major flaws with, apart from Shami, the rest four bowlers had recorded the economy rate of 7 on an average. With a huge target on board, team India took the operation to chase 374 runs in Aussie's playground. The opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal gave a decent opening of 53 runs and Hazlewood had spoiled the stand by picking up the wicket of Agarwal following which Kohli came to the crease. 

However, after four overs, Kohli was dismissed by Hazlewood and after the captain went to the pavilion by scoring 21 runs off 21 balls, Shreyas Iyer came in only to have a quick dismissal as Iyer has walked back by scoring 2 runs. When KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Shami fell short of the race, Hardik Pandya took the responsibility and fought till the end. With the unbeaten play, Pandya shined on Aussie's land by scoring 90 runs off 76 balls including seven fours and four sixes. 

However, India ended up scoring 308 runs off 50 overs by losing eight wickets and Kohli's fleet had conceded the defeat to the host by 66 runs and through the visitor's flawed opening, the host leads the series with a victory. Steve Smith was named as the player of the match for scoring a century in 62 balls. Following the defeat, Virat Kohli had addressed the post-match presentation during which he said, "Everyone needs to show the intent in the entire 50 overs. Probably, we played 50 overs after a long time that could have an effect, but having said that we have played so much ODI cricket that it is not something we don't know how to do". 

Kohli stated "I think the body language in the field wasn't great after around 25 overs. It was a disappointing part. If you don't take your chances against a top-quality opposition they'll hurt you and that is what happened today. We have to find out a way to get a few overs from part-timers. Unfortunately, someone like Hardik is not ready to bowl yet, we have to accept that, we don't really have all-round options as such right now". 

"The key to winning games is picking up wickets, that is something we were not able to do, also lapses in the field were also a reason why we couldn't capitalize on any kind of momentum, the pressure that we created in the early part of the innings". Kohli added. India will be taking on Australia for the second match on Sunday and the second match will also be hosted by Sydney cricket stadium.