In the thrilling third and final one-day international against Australia on Wednesday, India’s Suryakumar Yadav, the best T20 batter in the world, failed to score a run for the third time in a row.

Because of his ability to play all over the field in the shortest white-ball format, the explosive Yadav is known as a 360-degree player. However, he has yet to establish himself in the 50-over game.

In the 36th over of India’s chase in the final ODI, Yadav was bowled by Ashton Agar. With a target score of 270 needed to win the match in Chennai, that left the hosts reeling at 185-6.

In both the first and second matches of the series, the 32-year-old was caught behind by Mitchell Starc, both times on the first delivery of his innings

Yadav has the backing of India captain Rohit Sharma as an important candidate for the ODI World Cup in India later this year.

Now that poor @surya_14kumar has set an unenviable world record w/ his three golden ducks in a row, is it unreasonable to ask why @IamSanjuSamson, averaging averaging 66 in ODIs despite batting at an unfamiliar position for him at 6, wasn't in the squad? What does he need to do?

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 23, 2023

Suryakumar is the sixth Indian batsman to score three ducks in a row in one-day internationals. Others include Sachin Tendulkar in 1994, Anil Kumble in 1996, Zaheer Khan in 2003-2004, Ishant Sharma in 2010-2011, and Jasprit Bumrah in 2017-2019.

As the visitors won by a comfortable 21 runs in Chennai on Wednesday to clinch the three-match ODI series 2-1, the Indian batsmen once more gave in under the relentless pressure of the Australian spinners. Pursuing a solid objective of 270 on a precarious pitch, India were all out for 248 in 49.1 overs as Australia returned the series subsequent to losing the principal ODI by five wickets.

The Indian team’s series defeat demonstrates that it is far from prepared for the World Cup and that there are too many untied knots.

Australian spinners Adam Zampa (4/45) and Ashton Agar (2/41 in 10 overs) snagged as many as six Indian wickets in the match’s final 15 overs, allowing only 86 runs to be scored between them.

After the 35th over of the Indian innings, it became extremely challenging to hit big shots on the Chepauk track.

The game was over after Zampa bowled a few googlies to force Hardik Pandya (40 off 40 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (1 off 33 balls) to hit against the turn.