While the series opener in Bangalore was washed out with India nine for one at that stage, subsequent matches saw whenever an Indian batsman offered some semblance of resistance, he found himself stranded and had to play a lone hand. Dhoni suffered the same fate in Kochi and in Hyderabad, it was Yuvraj Singh's turn.

Since the rain-ruined Bangalore tie, India have been laid low by this lack of partnership in the middle.

In the second ODI at Kochi, the 49-stand between Dhoni and Rahul Dravid was India's highest partnership while things were relatively better at Hyderabad, where Yuvraj added 95 runs with Sachin Tendulkar.

In contrast, Australia never had to worry about such problems. Michael Clarke shared a 144-run stand with Brad Haddin in Bangalore, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds forged a 108-run partnerships in Kochi and Clarke added 123 runs with Symonds in Hyderabad. And the solid middle order partnerships meant Australia easily overcame their early crisis in the first two matches.

Unfortunately, for Dhoni's team, it has not been the same story. After the 47-run drubbing in Hyderabad, Dhoni admitted the problem and said, "against a team like Australia, you need partnerships and if you don't get them, then you don't even realise when the asking rate goes up to eight."

Opening partnership has been especially frustrating for India. Chasing imposing targets, India badly needed rollicking starts bit it never came and the fragility of the opening pair is enough to cost Dhoni his sleep.

So far, the opening stands have read 1, 11 and 10 in three matches, which means the hosts always found themselves on the back foot before they really began the chase.

If well begun is half-done, India were undone by their opening pairs and they could never really recover from the ensuing top order collapse.

The desperate Indian think-tank packed the line-up with seven batsmen in Hyderabad but the idea itself tanked and Yuvraj was left to play a gallant knock without any real support from the other end.

Trailing 2-0 in the series, which threatens to slip through his fingers, Dhoni would now be desperately hoping that the batsmen would finally mend their ways in the fourth ODI in Chandigarh on Monday.

Australians, however, have been thoroughly professional in their show, scoring 900-plus runs in three matches so far, missing the 300-mark only once when they were apparently ‘restricted’ to 290 for 7 in the third ODI.