India vs Australia 2019: 5 reasons that led to India's failure in the ODI series

#3 Hardik Pandya's untimely injury

Pandya was injured before the ODI series

Management decided to rest Pandya for the limited over series against Australia giving him an extended time to recover from injury. This in turn led to the different combinations India opted throughout the series. Vijay Shankar did play well in almost all the games, but absence of Pandya was felt considering how rarely Kohli used Shankar with the ball.

Not to forget that Shami faced an injury scare in the third ODI leading to him being rested for 4th game. Rhythm with which he bowled in first two games went slightly missing in the fifth ODI. In fact, he was bowling so well compared to Bumrah in the first two games.

To make matters worse, MS Dhoni was resting for the last two ODI games. This meant, the younger Pant was donning the gloves behind the stumps. Although, he lacked the keeping skills (which we believe he will learn much quicker) of that of MSD, it is worthy to note that the dropped chances from his end has definitely hurt India's chances of winning the game.

We understand that MSD do need some rest and it is important to give Pant his chances behind the stumps, but we feel that India should have won the series before resting the key players.