The fifth and final Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy is evenly poised after the second day’s play at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The visitors have an overall second-innings lead of 145 runs with four wickets in hand. The pitch was tricky right from the outset, and Australia’s first innings folded for 181, conceding a meagre lead of four runs.

Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj were the pick of the Indian bowlers, picking up three wickets each. Stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah, who had to leave the field in the second session due to back spasms, set the tone with a couple of scalps while all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy bagged two crucial wickets.

Speaking to the media after the close of play on Day 2, Krishna addressed the question on verbal battle between Australian youngster Sam Konstas and the Indian team.

The tall pacer praised Konstas cheekily and acknowledged that it’s fun playing aggressive cricket with a character like that.

“I don’t think so [if Konstas got under the skin of the Indian team], but not yet, I mean. We enjoy the way he plays the game and we also would like to play the game aggressively,” Krishna told reporters.

“If we have somebody that comes up and say ‘I can fight you’, as a team we want to tell them that you can’t take us for granted. We are here, 11 of us vs you. If you can be as aggressive, it’s fine.”

Krishna also reflected on the changes he had to make to adapt to the challenges of bowling first change in the Indian setup.

“Everytime I played with my state [Karnataka], I was bowling with the new ball,” Krishna said.

“Coming here, having to bowl one change, I looked at what everyone else in the world does who is bowling one change — try and give control to the team and be consistent in the line and lengths that I’m bowling. That is the mental change which I made and obviously I had to put some work to try and get myself to that point.”

Krishna also made changes to the lengths he was bowling after returning in the post-lunch session, which helped him identify the right length to bowl on this track.

“When I got back in lunch, I actually looked at where I was bowling and examined my lengths,” the Karnataka pacer admitted.

“However, my perception of length that I was bowling was slightly different. Then the analyst and I sat down together and we had a better idea of what my reference point is when I’m coming in to bowl the next spell and that really helped.”

In Bumrah’s absence, Virat Kohli took over the captaincy duties but the Indian bowling attack stuck to their plans.

“I think no matter who is leading as a team we prepare very well as a team about what we need to do on the field,” Krishna remarked.

“Plans are pretty clear, even when Bumrah was on or Virat was on. Not much change that way.”

This has been a sweet return to the Indian setup for Krishna, who was out of reckoning for an extended period due to injuries.

“Definitely feels great to be back in the setup and amongst the guys, and learning every day in the practice or when you are watching the play it feels great,” Krishna said.

“Now when I have got a chance, I haven’t really thought about how much time I’ve missed of cricket. I have been off for sometime now, with two injuries in two years. But definitely feels great [to be back] and hopefully will keep doing this when I remain on the field for longer."

Krishna said the SCG wicket is still playing its tricks, and when asked what total they would prefer to defend in the fourth innings, he didn’t mention a specific number but stated that more the score, the better it would be.

“It is getting difficult [to play deliveries] on some areas, and the ball is keeping low sometimes,” the right arm quick said.

“But there is enough bounce in the pitch to keep us in the game and look for those edges and try and beat them either side of the edge.

“As many runs as possible would be great for us. We don’t really know what the wicket is behaving like. It’s going up, it’s going down. If you can be aggressive, there is risk involved but you can get the reward of runs. There’s no particular number in mind, but as many runs as possible would be great."