Although getting wickets early on helped Australia win by seven wickets in a rain-shortened first ODI in Perth on Sunday, spinner Matthew Kuhnemann backed India to recover well from a crushing defeat in the opening match of the tour.
India lost badly, managing just 136 for nine in the first half, which was hampered by frequent weather delays. However, Australia’s victory was set by the poor comebacks of Virat Kohli (0) and Rohit Sharma (8) at the beginning of the match.
Indian supporters flocked to the Optus Stadium to cheer on the visiting team, which featured Rohit and Kohli in their first international encounter since March of this year. However, their batting failures highlighted an unimpressive performance for India.
Following the match, Kuhnemann responded to a question about if it seemed like an away game and whether Australia was able to quiet the crowd by saying, “Yeah, especially when you come up against a team like this when all their batters are world-class and legends of the game and so, especially to get wickets upfront, (it) makes a massive difference.”
However, Kuhnemann believed that India will bounce back from the crushing loss in the first game of the series.
“I think they’ll come back real strong. Like I said, they’re a world-class team and it’s going to be a great series, With the one-dayers and the T20Is, it’s going to be awesome,” he said.
Kuhnemann attributed his success to his T20 format expertise after making an impression with a four-over spell in which he returned 2/26, accounting for Axar Patel (31) and Washington Sundar (10).
“When we kept coming on and off, the one stage I didn’t think I was going to bowl. Even bowling at the end there, I sort of knew it was going to be a tough ask,” he said.
“But I’ve sort of been around this group now for a little while and especially the T20 side of things. I spent a lot of time the last six months on that sort of role in T20 bowling so it came handy today,” Kuhnemann added.
Additionally, the left-arm spinner gave credit to his time spent with assistant coach Daniel Vettori and Australia’s limited-overs spinner Adam Zampa.
“Whenever you get a chance to travel as a team, it’s amazing. The success I’ve had over for a long time now is awesome. Whenever we get an opportunity to sort of play, you’ve got to jump at the opportunity. I absolutely love playing with this team and it was pretty special to get a win here,” he said.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Zamps (Adam Zampa) for the last three months especially and working with Vettori. And, yeah, T20 career, even though it’s a one-day game, you’ve got to sort of be able to bowl from any over from one to 20, especially as a finger spinner.
“Always sort of learning off them boys and especially Zamps just being an excellent bowler for this team for a long time now,” he added.
According to Kuhnemann, the Australian fast bowlers were impacted by the frequent rain delays that kept the players off the field for a significant portion of the first innings.
“It was probably a bit more frustrating for the big quicks because they were in a good rhythm and bowling fast and getting the ball to nip and swing and everything,” he said.
“The way they bowled upfront was beautiful and then to come back out after a couple of rain breaks was really impressive,” Kuhnemann added.
