Veteran India batsman 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 favourite 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 Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. After taking a commanding 157-run first-innings lead, Australia decreased 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 weakness is short-pitched deliveries, which is well known to the opposition,” Pujara mentioned on Star Sports in his second day’s evaluation.
“But we only saw two-three short-pitched deliveries to him… They could have been used more effectively.
“He dominates the offside, so we might have curbed his offside stroke-making and as an alternative of a 6-3 (offside-onside) a 5-4 subject placement would have been a superb ploy towards Head.”
Pujara also pointed out the inexperience of the Indian batters against the pink ball, highlighting how they played too late, leading to a string of dismissals.
“The batters performed too late, with most of them getting out due to their inexperience with the pink ball.
“They should have discussed in the team meeting when to score runs and when to play defensively. If 2-3 wickets had fallen today, there could have been a comeback chance, but now it’s very difficult.” Shubman Gill was trying good for his 30-ball 28 earlier than Mitchell Starc angled one in to wash him up.
“The ball comes very quickly. Most deliveries were angled away, and one angled in, which led to Gill’s dismissal.” While 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 method.
“Pant’s counterattack was necessary and unsettled (Scott) Boland with his range of shots. He picked the length well, a good strategy.
“However, he can have a giant duty. If this partnership reaches 100 or extra, India can have an opportunity. This is the final pair for India, because the decrease order is unlikely to contribute a lot towards the pink ball,” Pujara added.
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