Despite a well-earned win in the first Test match against India in the first Test match at Pune, the Australian opener David Warner has urged his team to be wary of the Indian team as the home side can make a comeback from any point of time. Warner said that he saw the tactic of Indian team in the first Test which impressed him,
“They (India) are the No. 1 Test team in the world. They are a great bunch of players and we know what to expect. We saw all the tricks in Pune – their bowling changes, their fielding placements, the way they play as a number one team. So for us to beat them on home soil was awesome and fantastic. But we know they’re going to come back harder and we’ve just got to adapt to the conditions again with what we face here in (Bengaluru),” Warner said.
Speaking on the pitch, which has been rated ‘poor’ by the match referee Chris Broad, Warner said that he has nothing to do with it. According to him, a player has to adapt to the conditions and then everything will go fine,
“That’s obviously up to the ICC and the match referees to deal with. There’s been wickets around the world that have been similar to what was produced. We were talking about it before … you’ve got green tops, you’ve got spinning wickets, you’ve got ones that sort of explode and take chunks out from day one. But at the end of the day, we’ve just got to go out there and adapt to the conditions. That (fines) gets dealt with afterwards,” he added.
Further, Warner added that the home Test series loss against South Africa was an eye opener for them where the home side lost the three-match Test series by a margin of 2-1, with the solitary win coming in the Pink ball Test where Kangaroos made oodles of changes in the squad,
“It was obviously quite painful, that loss at home. South Africa outplayed us, but we’ve moved on from that and Smudge (Steve Smith) got us all together and we galvanised well. I think it takes a loss like that at home sometimes to really get guys going. It’s not that we needed that, it’s just the fact it’s a bit of a reality check that you can have one bad session, and it can be taken away from you even on home soil.”
Warner had praise for words for Matt Renshaw as well, who was playing his first Test match in India. Renshaw stood tall against the Indian spinners as he along with Warner shared 82 runs for the first wicket before Warner was dismissed by Umesh Yadav in the very first over he came to bowl.
Renshaw though retired ill due to a tame stomach but came back and played gritty innings of 68 to help Australia pile up a score of 260 on the board. In the second innings as well Renshaw played a crucial knock of 31,
“First Test match in India, India probably didn’t expect that. We have never seen him (Renshaw) play in these conditions as well, so we know how he can play and that’s the good thing about this game. When you have fresh people in the team, you don’t know what they are capable of as well and it adds another string to your bow.
“He (Renshaw) played fantastically. It could have been a different story if he stayed out there or he didn’t come off (in first innings) but the way he played and the way he adapted from coming off, being sick and going back out there was credit to him,” he added.
The second Test match of the series will kick off on March 4 which will be played in Bangalore.