Finch urges change in Aussie approach

Australia’s batsmen lacked aggression against India’s world-class spin attack during Sunday’s six-wicket defeat by the hosts in their World Cup opener and they must change their mindset to be more effective, former captain Aaron Finch said.
A spin-heavy attack of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin collectively took six wickets and gave away 104 runs in 30 overs to dismiss five-times champions Australia for 199, before India sealed victory after a nervy start.
Finch, part of the Australian team who won the 50-overs trophy in 2015 and led them to Twenty20 World Cup success in 2021, said they should not have allowed the trio to bowl how they wanted to on a helpful Chennai wicket.
“Part of it comes down to how India bowled spin, but we also need to look at the way Australia batted,” Finch, 36, wrote in a column for the ICC website.
“There was a clear plan among the group to be proactive, to try to limit dot balls and rotate strike against what they knew would be a world-class group of spinners.
“There was a bit of a lack of aggression from the Australian batters. They will be disappointed by the intent they showed and the fact that they weren’t able put any pressure back on India.
“It needs a mindset shift, to look to be on the front foot a little more and take some calculated risks.”
Finch said the defeat was not “fatal” as Australia prepare to face South Africa on Thursday.
“The mood around Australia is still optimistic. With a nine-game group stage, you can afford a little slip-up here and there and it’s not fatal,” Finch said.
“In the Twenty20 World Cup, we found that losing one game is enough and the margins are so fine. Here you can cope with a couple of losses, you just don’t want them to be too big for net run rate.”

India crack ODI code with Test match approach
KL Rahul, who made 97 not out, and Virat Kohli (85) forged a match-winning partnership of 165 to bail out India who reached the target with 52 balls to spare against Australia on Sunday.
Rahul said the piece of advice he received from senior teammate Kohli was to treat it as a Test match for a while to arrest their slide. “Virat said there’s big help (for bowlers) in the wicket, and (we) just have to play proper shots and play like it’s Test cricket for some time and see where it goes,” said the wicketkeeper-batter. “That was mostly the plan, and happy that we could do the job for the team.” The small target meant both the batters could take their time to get a hang of the wicket when Australian pacers were breathing fire from both ends. Kohli was also lucky to get a reprieve on 12 when Mitchell Marsh dropped him in what proved a costly mistake for Australia.
Five-time champions Australia would be particularly upset with their batting as none of their batters managed a fifty.
India picked a three-pronged spin attack. Ravindra Jadeja claimed three of them and the left-arm spinner said he too took a Test match approach of maintaining a tight line and length rather than trying something extraordinary.
“This was my plan, that I should bowl at the stumps and luckily the ball to Smith turned a little more,” Jadeja said explaining how he dismissed Australia’s topscorer Steve Smith (46).
“My plan was simple. I was thinking that this is a Test match bowling wicket, and I shouldn’t experiment too much because everything was happening in the wicket.
“So I was trying to bowl it stump to stump.”
India face Afghanistan in their next match in New Delhi tomorrow.