Team India are on the verge of a heavy defeat in the ongoing pink-ball Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

After gaining a significant first-innings lead of 157 runs, Australia further tightened their grip on the match by reducing India to 128/5 in their second innings.

Rishabh Pant and Nitish Reddy were in the middle at stumps on Day 2, with the visitors still trailing by 29 runs and facing an uphill task to stay in the contest.

On Day 1, India’s first innings folded for a paltry 180, with no batter managing to score a half-century in the day-night affair.

Speaking on Star Sports, veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara attributed India’s flop show with the bat in Adelaide to the players’ lack of experience with the pink ball.

"The batters played too late, with most of them getting out because of their inexperience with the pink ball," Pujara said.

"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," he added.

Shubman Gill looked good during his 30-ball 28, but left-arm quick Mitchell Starc produced a brilliant in-swinging delivery to knock him over.

"The ball comes very quickly. Most deliveries were angled away, and one angled in, which led to Gill's dismissal," said Pujara.

Despite India’s batting collapse, Rishabh Pant played his natural game to finish the second day on 28 not out off 25 balls.

Pujara appreciated Pant's counter-attack, highlighting its importance in shifting the pressure back on the bowlers.

"Pant's counterattack was necessary and unsettled (Scott) Boland with his range of shots. He picked the length well, a good strategy.

"However, he will have a big responsibility. If this partnership reaches 100 or more, India will have a chance. This is the last pair for India, as the lower order is unlikely to contribute much against the pink ball," he remarked.

Pujara also slammed the Indian fast bowlers for not exploiting Travis Head’s weakness against short-pitched deliveries and giving him too much room on the offside.

Head took the Indian bowling attack to the cleaners, smashing 140 off 141 balls with 17 boundaries and 4 sixes to put Australia in the driver’s seat.

"Head's weakness is short-pitched deliveries, which is well known to the opposition," Pujara said. "But we only saw two-three short-pitched deliveries to him... They could have been used more effectively.

"He dominates the offside, so we could have curbed his offside stroke-making and instead of a 6-3 (offside-onside) a 5-4 field placement would have been a good ploy against Head."