Australians seek swift end to worrying trend

If losing is a habit, as legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi claimed, the Australian cricket team has developed a concerning one just two months out from the start of the Ashes.

Australia's five-wicket defeat in India on Sunday night was the 11th loss in their past 13 one-day internationals away from home. And the two they didn't lose were rain-affected no results.

All up, since the end of the Test and ODI component of last summer, when the Aussies shook off a bad start to the season and finished with 10 wins out of 11, this team has won just three of 17 matches across all formats.

And while an ODI against India in Bengaluru is about as about far as you can get from a Test match against England in Brisbane, it's a trend captain Steve Smith is desperate to stop.

Particularly when, as was the case on Sunday night, they surrender a match-winning position.

"It's been a bit of a trend for this format and the Test format as well," Smith said after their loss in Indore handed the hosts an unassailable 3-0 series lead with two games to play.

"We're quite often getting ourselves into good positions and we're not taking advantage of those and today was no different.

"We continually address it and it's just hard to put the finger on exactly what it is we're doing or not doing to get the results we're after.

"It's a different format but I'd certainly like to start winning some games of cricket in every format, to be honest.

"Our results haven't been good enough and we need to turn them around."

The fact that the Aussies have won only three games since Australia Day perhaps doesn't quite do them justice. An ill-timed London downpour cost them a Champions Trophy victory over Bangladesh in June, their Test performance in India earlier this year deserved more than just a single victory, and their 2-1 T20 series defeat against Sri Lanka in February came without most of their best players.

And in this series, too, Australia have had their moments.

They had the hosts rattled at 5-87 in Chennai before falling to a 26-run defeat. They restricted them to a below-par total of 252 in Kolkata before their batsmen failed to fire in a 50-run defeat. And on Sunday, they were 1-224 with more than 12 overs remaining before a late stumble and a polished Indian batting display secured a 3-0 series scoreline.

But losing is losing.

"It's always hard to take when you lose," Smith said. "(As captain) you've got to continue to try and motivate them and get them up for their next two games.

"We've got to start winning games of cricket. We've lost 11 of our past 13 games we've played away with two no results, so that's pretty ordinary. And not good enough from an Australian cricket team

"So we need to start turning those results around and winning some games of cricket."

The most recent example of a pre-summer ODI campaign abroad suggests it does have an impact on the impending Test campaign; Australia’s 0-5 series whitewash in South Africa last October was followed by a shock 1-2 Test series defeat at home just a month later.

This summer is different to last, though, with three more weeks and two extra Shield games between the end of the limited overs tour and the start of the Test summer.

Similarly, in a prelude to the 2013-14 home Ashes, Australia again found themselves on the wrong end of results in India losing a seven-match ODI series 3-2 as the home side chased down scores of 350-plus twice, and Rohit Sharma smashed a double century. The Aussies quickly turned around results back on home turf and in whites.

And while the remaining five matches in India – two ODIs and three T20s – will be all but forgotten by the time the first Test begins at The Gabba on November 23, winning, like losing, can be a habit.

And the Aussies would love to start winning again.

Australia's Qantas Tour of India

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.

India squad (first three ODIs): Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.

ODI Fixtures

September 17: India won by 26 runs (DLS Method)

September 21: India won by 50 runs

September 24: India won by five wickets

September 28: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

October 1: VCA Stadium, Nagpur

T20 Fixtures

October 7: JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi

October 10: Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati

October 13: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad