Cricket World Cup 2015 News: India Off On The Wrong Foot In Crushing Warm-Up Loss To Australia

The 2015 Cricket World Cup is still one week away from officially starting, but already defending champion India is off on the wrong foot.

After an agonizing tour of Australia that included a string of losses in Test matches and poor play in the tri-series with Australia and England, the Indian squad had a chance to erase the difficult month and start over with a warm-up match against Australia. But India faces much of the same problems, suffering a crushing loss by 106 runs.

For India, the spinners were a disappointment, as Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were taken for 66 runs in just seven overs.

As the India Express noted, the Indian squad tried to play around with the lineup a bit in what will be one of its last tune-ups before the World Cup, but couldn’t find success.

“This was a warm-up game and India tried as many as eight bowlers. Once again it was Stuart Binny who was given the new ball which proved counter-productive on a flat Adelaide pitch as Warner smashed Indian bowlers to all parts of the park. The others, barring Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin, went for over six runs per over. The short-bowling ploy was in tatter as the Indian bowlers lacked the pace to beat the Australian batsmen. Umesh was the pick of the bowlers while Mohit Sharma, replacement of Ishant Sharma for the World Cup, bowled in the right areas at the start but finished with two for 62 in six overs.”

India could now have bigger problems when the real matches in the 2015 Cricket World Cup begin next weekend. The team has long had difficulties with bowling and comes into the sport’s biggest tournament with an inexperienced attack led by Ishant Sharma.

But coach Duncan Fletcher said he isn’t too worried about the Indian team.

“What makes this team special is that over the last few years they have faced all kinds of situations in the limited overs cricket and have shown they are capable of coming out successfully from all of them,” said the Zimbabwean in an interview before the warm-up loss. “That’s why I say that we have a good chance to win this World Cup.”

The Indian squad will have one more chance to turn things around before the 2015 Cricket World Cup begins. The team has another warm-up match against Afghanistan before its opening round match next weekend against Pakistan.

[Image via TVSerialsUpdate]