There has been a sudden interest in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, thanks to the way in which the first game at Pune panned out. On a surface that clearly seemed to reflect India’s strength, the hosts found themselves at crossroads as their own strategy backfired miserably. Australia, in their second innings, displayed a sense of great maturity as they batted India out of the game and in return, registered their first win on Indian shores in almost 13 years.
Post the game, several questions loomed India’s outlook, as the hosts weren’t expected to succumb against spin in such a spineless manner. Ahead of the second Test at Bengaluru, which promises to have a sporting wicket, coach Anil Kumble credited the Australian team for adapting well to the conditions in Pune – much better than their Indian counterparts.
“What has happened in Pune is done and dusted. We didn’t play really well, didn’t adapt to the conditions. Every game we need to adapt to what comes our way. Australia played well,” Kumble said at the pre-match press conference.
“We don’t need to worry about the Pune loss. Really looking to forward to this game to get back to winning ways. It was a team failure and we cannot point fingers at anyone,” he added.
Lauding the visitors for their performance, Kumble added:
“Australia are a quality side. Don’t think we played to our potential in Pune. We want to play to our potential in this match. Partnerhsips as batting unit, bowling unit, didn’t tick those boxes. We want to tick those boxes to win the Test match,” he said.
Kumble concluded by mentioning just one game isn’t enough to give an idea about India’s experience with the DRS.
“Don’t think we missed it out on DRS. We did certainly better in DRS than England and Bangladesh. Those calls were really close. Don’t think we need to talk about it now.”