Coach Vikram Rathour refuses to blame batsmen, says 'none played rash shots’

India skipper Rohit Sharma walks off after being dismissed for 12 against Australia yesterday. Pic/PTI

Learning from the debacle in the second Test in Delhi, where a number of their batsmen perished playing the sweep shot, the Australians eschewed risk-filled strokes and made a conscious effort not to over-do the sweep and that helped them survive on a track where the ball is not only turning and jumping, but also occasionally keeping low.

Ironically though it was a sweep shot played by a well-set Usman Khawaja that led to a much-needed breakthrough for India. Khawaja (60), the best batsman on view on Day One, holed out at square-leg off Ravindra Jadeja just when he was looking good enough for a century. And that opened a bit of a door for the Indian spinners to make a comeback before the close of play.

Played to my plan: Khawaja

"I played to my plan, tried to score when there was an opportunity and kept out the good balls. It's not rocket science, honestly, to know that it's not an easy wicket out there. On a spin-friendly wicket, it felt tough the whole time and I don't expect it to get better. I used the sweep intermittently when I needed to today. It's just another arsenal in your repertoire. It's hard enough out there, the bowler keeps you guessing. So, I was trying to keep them guessing too. It was a bit of a cat and mouse," Khawaja said.

Vikram Rathour

The Indians, on the other hand, who had a measure of the Australian bowling in Nagpur and Delhi, were caught in a spin web in the morning. No doubt the Aussie spinners were getting a lot of bounce and bite off the fresh surface, but the home batsmen seemed to have caught the Aussie bug of playing extravagant and rash shots to be cleaned up for just 109 in just 34 overs.

‘Challenging wicket'

India's batting coach Vikram Rathour, however, refused to blame the Indian batsmen. "It was just that the early morning moisture in the pitch and the extra turn and bounce that it generated troubled our batsmen. It was a challenging wicket and our batsmen fell to good deliveries. No way would I say that they played rash shots. But once that moisture dried up, the pitch eased out to some extent," said Rathour.\

Also Read: Rohit was made to work hard: Vikram Rathour

Interestingly, a day earlier, India wicketkeeper-batsman Srikar Bharat had offered a solution to how batsmen should go about their business on such turning tracks. "You just need to back your defence, the wickets are not unplayable. You apply yourself, back your defence and there is definitely scope for batters to score. The shot selection is critical on these tracks. Runs will come if the shot selection is right. You can't just defend, you have to look for scoring opportunities," he had said.

Somehow this message was lost on the Indian batsmen though and even their move to promote Jadeja did not come off. The way the Indian wickets tumbled, it seemed the match would not even enter Day Three. The Australians however, found the measure of the Indian bowling to make it an interesting encounter hereon.