Captain Rohit Sharma speaks on SKY’s rough patch in ODIs

In the third India-Australia ODI on Wednesday, the TV cameras moved to captain Rohit Sharma in the dugout, who was as perplexed as anybody else watching when Ashton Agar dismissed Suryakumar Yadav with the opening delivery. Suryakumar Yadav, India's T20 star in the previous season, has just been dismissed for a golden duck in his third straight ODI. India lost the 2-1 series, their first home ODI series loss since 2019. All three of his dismissals came without him connecting bat to ball.

Rohit said, “He only played three balls in three (games) this series. So I don’t know how much to look into it. He got three good balls, to be honest.”

Surya was out at a vital point in chasing 270 runs. Australia gained the initiative thanks to Agar's two wickets in two deliveries, including Virat Kohli's dismissal on the previous delivery. Mitchell Starc had defeated the flamboyant right-handed hitter in the first and second One-Day Internationals, which caused Surya to drop from number four to number five in the batting order. However, the Indian captain said the middle-order batsman should have performed better after his dismissal in Chennai.

“Today wasn’t that good ball; he should have gone forward. He knows best. He plays spin so well. We have seen that over the last couple of years. That’s why we held him back and gave him that role for the last 15-20 overs where he could play his game, but, unfortunately, he could only play three balls. That can happen to anyone. But the potential and ability are always there. He is just going through that phase right now.”

Surya's dismissal on Wednesday brought him to the number of Indian hitters who have been out for three straight One Day Internationals (ODIs) on golden ducks to an unfortunate total that also includes Sachin Tendulkar (1994), Anil Kumble (1996), Zaheer Khan (2003–04), Ishant Sharma (2010–11), and Jasprit Bumrah. (2017-2019).