Veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara expressed his disappointment with India's batting performance on Day 1 of the pink-ball Test against Australia. He believes India fell short by 70-80 runs, considering the favorable batting conditions.
Cheteshwar Pujara not happy with India's dismal batting in Adelaide Test
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, India suffered an early setback with Yashasvi Jaiswal's dismissal on the first ball. However, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul stabilized the innings with a 69-run partnership.
Unfortunately, India's momentum was short-lived as they lost wickets in quick succession, eventually being bowled out for 180 runs. Australia ended the day with 86 runs on the board, trailing by 94 runs.
Pujara opined that India should have aimed for a score of 250-275 runs on the Adelaide track. He acknowledged the impressive performance of the Australian bowlers and admitted that India's attempt to replicate their bowling strategy didn't yield the desired results.
"I think we could have batted a lot better. It was a pitch where we should have got 250 to 275. So we are 70-80 runs behind. Credit goes to the Aussie bowlers because the way they bowled. They pitched the ball up. Their lengths were much better than our bowlers," Cheteshwar Pujara, who is part of hindi commentary panel for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, said.
"I do understand that our bowlers did try to hit the same length, which wasn't the ideal length. But if you look at the Aussie bowlers' length, initially they mixed it up when there wasn't help when they started pitching up," Pujara further stated.
Pujara also highlighted Australia's effective use of back-of-a-length deliveries, targeting the line just outside the off stump. He pointed out that India failed to build partnerships, losing wickets at regular intervals.
"They went to back of length. They started bowling betweem 6 to 8 meters and that's where we lost a couple of wickets in the middle order. KL Rahul and Virat, both of them got out two back of the length deliveries. And the line was still just over 4th stump, which was an ideal line on this pitch. So I found that I know we could have batted a lot better on this pitch, where we had partnerships, but after one partnership, we kept on losing wickets," Pujara concluded.
KL Rahul (37) did get off to a good start even after Jaiswal returned to the pavilion for duck, but couldn't convert it into a big knock. After Rahul and Virat Kohli's (7) dismissal, the mantle was on Gill (31), who was later removed by Scott Boland in the 22nd over. Captain Rohit Sharma (3) who came to bat at no.6 also couldn't click with the bat. Rishabh Pant did chip in with a 35-ball 21 but it was Nitish Kumar Reddy (42) and R Ashwin (22) which rallied India past 150-run mark.
In reply, Australia got off to a cautious start, especially after the wicket of Usman Khawaja (13) as they ended the Day 1's play at 86/1.