Not paying too much heed to team India’s spectacular collapse on the second day of the match, India head coach Anil Kumble has called it just one bad day for his in-form team.
Barring the second session on day one, nothing much has gone according to the script for India in the first Test against Australia at Pune.
After the Indian bowlers failed to capitalise on Australia’s middle-order collapse, the Indian batsmen came up with one of the worst batting displays in recent times that has allowed the visitors to take command of the proceedings at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
The hosts began the second day on a good note when R Ashwin ended the frustrating partnership between Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in the very first over. But before that, Starc had scored 61 to help his team pile up 260 on a pitch which has assisted the spinners right from ball one. In reply, India suffered an inexplicable collapse and were dismissed for a paltry 105. Virat Kohli’s men lost their last 7 wickets for only 11 runs to give Australia the upper hand in the series opener. With a massive 155-run already on their side, the visitors finished the second day at 143/4 to extend their overall lead to 298 runs.
“You are bound to have one bad day. It was disappointing,” said the India coach after the day’s play. “We were in a pretty decent position when Rahul and Ajinkya (Rahane) were batting out there. But once Rahul got out, we lost those four wickets in five or six balls. That certainly pushed us back.”
India’s misery was further compounded by a poor show by the fielders. The hosts dropped as many as four catches, three of Steve Smith alone. And the Aussie skipper fully capitalised on the opportunity as he led his team from the front with an unbeaten 59-run knock.
With still six Australian wickets to fall, Australia’s lead will certainly go around 400. India’s back is certainly against the wall but Kumble insisted that there was still a lot of cricket left in the match.
“There is always a first time to anything,” Kumble said. “We would like to restrict them to as little as possible. We dropped a few catches. It has hurt us in the past, especially in this game you need to hold your chances even if half chances. We dropped Steve Smith on couple of occasions, that has certainly pushed us back. Hopefully tomorrow morning we can pick up a few early wickets and then put the pressure back on them. I still feel there’s a lot of cricket to be played in this Test match. Tomorrow is another day.”
Meanwhile, the former India cricketer refused to blame the Pune pitch and said that the players can succeed on the surface with good application.
“This pitch was certainly challenging,” Kumble said. “We needed a lot more restraint and [it] showed that if you put your head down, you could make those runs. It’s a surface where you needed to adapt. We didn’t adapt really well. Probably if you look at yesterday, the first 80 runs in the first session and the last 60 runs for the last wicket – that slightly took us away from what we were wanting to restrict Australia to.
“It is a challenging surface which requires application, aggression and a bit of caution as well. You need a mix out of that. And today was not our day. We have to give credit to the Australian bowlers as well. It was one of those days when you go back and start, ‘Ok, how do we come back and pick those six wickets?’,” he added.