India seek the right balance to bounce back in Adelaide

Australia v India, 2nd Test, Day 1 report

Australia struck off the first ball of the day, as Mitchell Starc trapped India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for a lbw, and then ensured that they had the upper hand for the rest of the day.

At present, the hosts trail by 94 runs after bowling India out for 180, with nine wickets to spare. For India, the key would be to start the second day of the Test in the best possible way.

And according to assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, while India will be looking early wickets, they will also try to ensure that Australia doesn’t run away with the scoring rate.

“We are aware that the second session is the main strike session [in the Test],” Ten Doeschate said. “[But] when you’ve got only 180 runs, you don’t want to leave it too late.

“I think the guys were excellent tonight at controlling the run rate,” he conceded. “But we’ll try to balance the two things, when to attack and when to sit back but we also don’t want to wait till the second session to make our move.

“I think we’ll go as hard as we can in the morning, but we’ll be slightly cautious as to how the rest of the day looks like.”

The first day of the Adelaide Test is a setback for the side after their thumping win in Perth, but ten Doeschate had little concerns regarding the morale of the side.

“This isn’t a team where the coaches need to go in the dressing room and tell the boys to do well. This is a very proud team that obviously wants to come here and do well.

“We feel slightly behind in the game, but there won’t be certainly any letting up and certainly won’t be any surrendering.”

WATCH Starc's brilliance in the Men's T20 World Cup 2024

Ten Doeschate also praised Australia pacer Mitchell Starc, who delivered a career-best spell of 6/48, for his bowling effort. He went on to credit Starc’s success to the fact that he was the main exponent of swing bowling on either side.

“I think Ash’s dismissal was an example of why he’s so good with the pink-ball. Australia set us up nicely. When the ball swings back to a certain degree or a lesser degree, the batters can generally figure it out but when they’re guessing on both sides, it makes them far more effective.

“Just the areas bowled today were superb, and obviously he takes a lot of confidence from the pink ball, having done well in the past. And he’s probably the main exponent of swing bowling out of the two teams.”