India v Australia 2017, 5th ODI: Hits and Misses

#4 Miss: James Faulkner

Faulkner has had a series to forget

The Man of the Match in Australia’s victory over New Zealand in the final of the ODI World Cup in 2015 has been unable to bring his best to the table for a long, long time.

James Faulkner was brought into this series along with Nathan Coulter-Nile as replacements for the regular bowling duo of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. While Coulter-Nile has been Australia’s stand-out cricketer in this series, Faulkner has failed to make his mark.

He failed to provide the final boost that Australia needed at the end of the first innings when he was run out by the Hardik Pandya-MS Dhoni duo.

He gave away 37 runs in the 5.5 overs that he bowled in the second innings and could not get a wicket to his name. An economy of 6.3 in a game where the opposition are chasing just 243 is simply unacceptable.