Australia suffered an embarrassing defeat by an innings and 132 runs in the opening Border-Gavaskar Test against India at VCA Stadium, Nagpur.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja ran through the Australian batting line-up in the first innings, picking a five-wicket haul (5-47) to bundle out the visitors for a paltry 177.
After India took a massive first-innings lead of 223 runs, it was R Ashwin’s turn to demolish the Aussies with the ball. The veteran off-spinner returned with the figures of 5 for 37 in his 12 overs as the hosts bowl out the tourists for a mere 91 to wrap the match inside three days.
With the second Test slated to get underway on February 17 in Delhi, Australia coach Andrew McDonald has said that he is expecting conditions to improve for his wards.
“I think if you start to shift and change dramatically and too quickly you start to get lost,” McDonald told SEN Test Cricket.
“You come here with a plan and after one game do you get information that shifts you in a new direction? Not at this stage.
“We clearly knew that that wicket at Nagpur would be the bigger turner we would face, it’s been the biggest turner for all opposition coming here so it was going to be a great challenge.”
In the opening Test, Akshar Patel dashed Australia's hopes of wrapping up the Indian tail as he slammed a well-constructed 84. The spin all-rounder was well supported by pacer Mohammad Shami (37 off 47 balls) as India racked up 400 in their first innings.
Earlier, Jadeja (70) and Ashwin (23) also chipped in with handy contributions with the bat.
“Their lower order batting is also going to be a differentiator in this series in Jadeja, Patel and Ashwin… they’ve got a really strong lower order and we’re going to be challenged by that,” McDonald stated.
“They’re no doubt going to have more runs available to their lower order than ours, so we’ve got to try to work out how to break even in that sense.”
Once India got a massive first-innings lead, McDonald conceded that it was always going to be a long way back.
“Clearly we’re disappointed with our first-up performance, we are realistic though, it’s a four-Test series so there’s a long way to go,” he said.
“The planning and preparation that went into it, we still feel that can work and we’ve got some quality players in the changeroom that can get us back on the right side.
“India put us under extreme pressure, we didn’t maximise our first innings and when you get behind in the subcontinent it’s a long way back and things can happen fast and that’s what we saw play out.
“(Saturday's) play is probably a reflection of not maximising that first innings after winning the toss.”
