Veteran India batter Cheteshwar Pujara slammed the Indian bowling assault for failing to bowl short-pitched deliveries to Travis Head and giving him an excessive amount of room on his favorite offside, because the left-hander hit a blistering 140 off 141 balls to place Australia firmly within the driver’s seat within the pink ball Check of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After taking a commanding 157-run first-innings lead, Australia lowered India to 128/5 of their second essay on day two, with Rishabh Pant and rookie all-rounder Nitish Reddy on the crease as India trailed by 29 runs at stumps.
“Head’s weak point is short-pitched deliveries, which is well-known to the opposition,” Pujara mentioned on Star Sports activities in his second day’s evaluation.
“However we solely noticed two-three short-pitched deliveries to him… They may have been used extra successfully.
“He dominates the offside, so we may have curbed his offside stroke-making and as a substitute of a 6-3 (offside-onside) a 5-4 area placement would have been an excellent ploy in opposition to Head.”
Pujara additionally identified the inexperience of the Indian batters in opposition to the pink ball, highlighting how they performed too late, resulting in a string of dismissals.
“The batters performed too late, with most of them getting out due to their inexperience with the pink ball.
“They need to have mentioned within the group assembly when to attain runs and when to play defensively. If 2-3 wickets had fallen at present, there may have been a comeback probability, however now it’s extremely troublesome.” Shubman Gill was trying good for his 30-ball 28 earlier than Mitchell Starc angled one in to wash him up.
“The ball comes in a short time. Most deliveries have been angled away, and one angled in, which led to Gill’s dismissal.” Whereas India have been reeling at 128/5 of their second innings, Pant performed a typical counterattacking knock to race to an unbeaten 28 from 25 balls.
Pujara hailed Pant’s counterattacking strategy.
“Pant’s counterattack was crucial and unsettled (Scott) Boland along with his vary of pictures. He picked the size properly, an excellent technique.
“Nevertheless, he could have a giant duty. If this partnership reaches 100 or extra, India could have an opportunity. That is the final pair for India, because the decrease order is unlikely to contribute a lot in opposition to the pink ball,” Pujara added.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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