The former Indian explosive opener Virender Sehwag while being the part of Hindi commentary panel on Star Sports on Friday with tongue-in-cheek has predicted India could have lost the ongoing Test match by the end of today in Pune, had the rules allowed Australia to enforce the follow-on.
Sehwag’s comment came after India struggled with the bat at home in the first innings at Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA).
The 38-year-old Delhi-born Sehwag, who is also playing his out-of-field innings with such aplomb on micro-blogging site Twitter had amassed 8,586 runs at an average of 49.34 which included 23 hundreds and 32 fifties.
“If the rule allowed Australian Team to enforce the follow-on India could’ve lost this Test by the end of today,” Virender Sehwag, who had played 104 Tests for India said.
The Pune wicket which could be termed as another ‘spinner’ for both the teams saw the fall of 13 wickets in first two sessions of the Day 2.
Earlier, India in a dramatic way lost seven wickets in 48 balls only to see the hosts’ adding 11 on the scoreboard.
The hosts’ scorecard saw eight of the batsmen did not cross the double digits which included two noughts.
O’Keefe bagged six after Starc picked two in the morning session. Hazlewood and Lyon picked a wicket apiece.
Earlier, the hosts struggled against fast bowlers in the morning session.
After losing KL Rahul in the 33rd over, the hosts lost the momentum in a reply to 260 Australia set after the heroics from Mitchell Starc with the bat.
The star for Australia was left-arm spinner O’Keefe, who bagged six wickets in the first innings at an average of 5.83 in his debut Test in India.
In eight innings of his five Tests, O’Keefe, who made his International debut in 2010, has bagged 20 wickets at an average of 24.70