India vs Australia: Virat Kohli vs Adam Zampa and other key battles to watch out for in ODI series

With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy concluded and their respective World Test Championship final slots booked, both India and Australia will now turn their focus towards white-ball cricket, with a three-match ODI series starting in Mumbai on Friday.

Also read: All you need to know about IND vs AUS ODI series

The ODI format holds plenty of importance this year with the 50-over World Cup set to take place in India. The upcoming ODI series will provide both teams to put their best foot forward with six months to go for the showpiece event.

Steve Smith will lead Australia in the absence of Pat Cummins (whose mother passed away recently). Over on the Indian camp, Shreyas Iyer has been ruled out of the series, and might also miss part of the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The ODI series still promises to bring in a lot of action on the field. The likes of Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis all arrived in India and were in Ahmedabad, during a training session ahead of the first ODI.

Veteran India batter Virat Kohli comes into the series with confidence, after his century heroics in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, while skipper Rohit Sharma will also hope to come good.

Let’s now take a look at three key player battles ahead of the ODI series:

Virat Kohli vs Adam Zampa

It was only a couple of years back that both Virat Kohli and Adam Zampa were part of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Zampa has previously explained the rapport he shared with Kohli, and how the then skipper welcomed him at RCB.

On head-to-head, Kohli seems to be Zampa’s favourite batter to get rid of. The legbreak bowler has dismissed Kohli eight times in limited-overs cricket, with his number eight coming during a T20I in Nagpur last year.

Sure, Zampa enjoys a decent record against Kohli, but ever since the two faced each other, Kohli has been on the rise, having scored four centuries and five fifties across formats.

Come the ODI series, Kohli vs Zampa is going to be yet another fascinating battle to witness.

Rohit Sharma vs Mitchell Starc

India skipper Rohit Sharma has previously struggled against left-arm pacers, and once again, he will come up against Mitchell Starc in the ODI series.

Rohit has scored just 416 runs in 31 innings in ODIs since 2019, a record that is worrying for India. And, everyone knows how formidable Starc can be on his day.

During the third India-Australia Test, Rohit survived in the very first over by Starc. And in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, Rohit and Starc came head-to-head again, and this time all of Rohit’s three fours and one six came against Starc. The India opener scored 42 runs in that contest before being dismissed by Todd Murphy.

Starc has dismissed Rohit only on two occasions in ODIs, but it will still be an exciting battle to watch out for, and how Rohit uses his aggressive technique against the seamer.

David Warner vs Mohammed Shami

Both David Warner and Mohammed Shami are experienced campaigners for their respective teams and have faced off in Tests and ODIs previously.

Across both the formats, Shami has dismissed Warner five times with three of those coming in ODIs.

On the other hand, Warner has managed just 97 runs in eight innings against Shami.

The left-handed batter had to cut the Test series short with an injury. He would be eager for runs after coming under pressure for his lack of runs in the longest format.

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