In the aftermath of the famous victory Matt Renshaw’s heroics seem to have been forgotten, even when his run to the toilet was the talking point of day 1. “We still haven’t discussed the team composition (for Bengaluru)”. Never a truer word was spoken than those from Smith after the Pune Test.
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Virat Kohli acknowledged it was a “good toss to win”, given the pitch is far more batsman-friendly than the raging turner in Pune.
“He’s putting them under constant pressure”.
But the first test loss at home since 2012 has raised questions over the Indian batsmen’s ability to handle a wicket where the ball is turning square.
Lyon had beaten Kohli with his turn and bounce early on in the over.
So, was Pune an aberration? In the second Test, he has to anchor India with the willow. Piles of runs? It should be fun finding out. They are also the best bowling figures for any Australian bowler against India and the second-best for an Australian spinner, after Arthur Mailey’s 9/121.
India have learnt their lessons from the debacle in Pune and will not repeat the mistakes in the second test against Australia, captain Virat Kohli said on Friday.
The nature of the Pune track, which turned sharply from day one, prompted the International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Chris Broad to express concern over the quality of the pitch.
The conditions look set to be tailor-made for a high-scoring affair like those seen during India’s 4-0 win over England where massive first innings totals and late English collapses became the norm.
To add to viewers’ surprise Kohli took a review which went in vain as the replay showed that the ball had hit him in front of the wickets. Hardik Pandya is carrying a niggle and has been ruled out of the fixture. “Australia had a lead of 150 or more, it was always a tough task for India to chase in the second innings of a Test match”.
And it’s what Australia seldom do in India: only twice in 61 years have they passed 550. Should he do it in his first innings in Bangalore, he will be the equal third-fastest to the milestone alongside Garry Sobers, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards and Matthew Hayden, and behind only Don Bradman and Jack Hobbs.
For most of India’s training session at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, fielding coach R Sridhar served up catches and watched how his boys, positioned in the slips, reacted to the offerings.
“Twenty games in current scenario of test cricket, it’s quite challenging for an worldwide side to keep going out there and winning”.
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“But it could play totally different to what we think.it’s about being able to sum it up and being adaptable and being able to communicate straight away what we think the wicket is like”. We’ll find out in Bengaluru if India are still hungry for more success or satiated.
