India skipper Virat Kohli on Friday was disappointed with his team’s body language during the opening One-Day International in Sydney on Friday.
India made a dismal start to their tour of Australia, losing the first ODI by 66 runs, chasing a mammoth 375-run target after Aaron Finch and Steve Smith smashed hundreds for the hosts.
"Everyone needs to show the intent in the entire 50 overs. Probably, we played 50 overs after a long time that could have an affect...but having said that we have played so much ODI cricket that it is not something we don't know how to do," Kohli said in the post-match presentation.
"I think the body language in the field wasn't great after around 25 overs. It was a disappointing part. If you don't take your chances against a top-quality opposition, they'll hurt you and that is what happened today."
With Hardik Pandya not yet to fit to bowl, Kohli said it is affecting the balance of the team.
"We have to find out a way to get few overs from part-timers. unfortunately, someone like Hardik is not ready to bowl yet, we have to accept that, we don't really have all-round options as such right now," he said.
"That is an area to be looked at. It is a big part in any team's balance, someone like Marcus (Stoinis), (Glenn) Maxwell bowling a few overs for Australia helped."
Kohli also rued the bowlers’ ability to pick regular wickets.
"The key to winning games is picking up wickets, that is something we were not able to do, also lapses in the field were also a reason why we couldn't capitalise on any kind of momentum, the pressure that we created in early part of the innings."
For India, Shikhar Dhawan (74) and Hardik (90) were the top-scorers.
Talking about the batting unit, Kohli said: "I think we gave ourselves the best chance.
"Hardik's innings was the best example of that. As a batting unit we committed nicely to positive cricket and we are going to do that in the future as well."
Winning captain Aaron Finch said he took his time early in the innings.
"Found it reasonably hard to get my timing. Took a couple of chances, got lucky," he said.
Finch heaped praise on his teammates for their performance despite not being able to train much as a unit.
"We've barely been together as a team. Each guy has different strengths and weaknesses. You embrace that. Davey (David Warner), he's moving beautifully. His rhythm looked outstanding. Smudge (Smith) was different class altogether," he said.
"Maxi (Maxwell), the rare ability he's got to just click his fingers and put pressure on the opposition."
