Australia vs India 2018/19, 2nd ODI: 4 Reasons why Australia lost the match

#3 Lack of a limited overs spinner

Nathan Lyon

Ever since Brad Hogg retired, Australia have been unable to find a proper limited overs spinner and this problem has persisted in this series as Lyon could not have any sort of impact on the game.

Nathan Lyon is a world-class Test bowler but the way he bowls is pretty one dimensional and that makes life easy for batsmen in limited overs cricket. His lack of variations was evident in his bowling today as he kept bowling outside the off stump even when the batsmen were easily rotating the strike.

Whenever the off-spinner tried pushing back his length, Kohli punished him by fiercely cutting and pulling. The field he set for his bowling were also very conservative and maybe he could have attacked more when MS Dhoni came to bat. To thrive as a finger spinner in the modern game, the bowler has to be smart and unpredictable but Lyon is not the perfect match for the job.