What happened the last time Steve Smith captained Australia in an ODI in India?

Steve Smith will continue to lead Australia on the tour of India as the one-day leg is set to begin with the first ODI to be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday, March 17.

Pat Cummins has suffered a personal tragedy, having lost his mother during the fourth Test in Ahmedabad. He returned to Australia after the second Test in Delhi to look after his mother. Since then, Smith has been the skipper and Australia have arguably looked a completely different side.

The visitors managed to win the third Test in Indore and drew the fourth Test in Ahmedabad, proving that they were not just pushovers. Although the Sandpapergate episode has tarnished his reputation a bit, Smith has shown that he is quite a proactive captain and that makes the ODI series even more interesting.

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Steve Smith lost his previous ODI in India as captain in Nagpur

The last time Steve Smith captained Australia in an ODI in India was in Nagpur in 2017. India at the time were pretty hard to beat in ODIs, and that too beating them in their own den was quite a challenge. Australia were quite a strong team at the time, but lost the series 4-1.

Australia batted first in Nagpur, and David Warner and Aaron Finch got off to a decent start, adding 66 runs for the first wicket. But then all-rounder Hardik Pandya struck with the wicket of Finch. Australia gradually kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as slow bowlers Axar Patel and Kedar Jadhav gave India control in the middle-overs.

Travis Head (42) and Marcus Stoinis (46) did play some handy cameos, but the visitors could only score 242/9 in their 50 overs. They needed early wickets in the second innings to remain in the game, but Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma dashed those hopes.

The duo added 124 runs for the first wicket and that broke the back of the target. Rahane scored 61 runs before getting dismissed, but Rohit smashed yet another ODI hundred, scoring 125 runs off just 109 balls. Virat Kohli played a decent cameo of 39, while Jadhav and Manish Pandey finished things off to help India clinch the series 4-1.

Australia will know from their performances in the last two Tests that it is possible to put pressure on the hosts in the upcoming ODI series. Steve Smith will know the last time the two teams played an ODI in Mumbai, Australia won by 10 wickets. This could drive them to compete hard and take a 1-0 lead in the series on Friday.

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India’s ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat.

Australia's ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa.