Team India were totally outplayed by Australia on the opening day of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final at the Oval in London.
Skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first. Indian bowlers were expected to run through the Australia batting line-up given the overcast conditions and a green-tinged pitch at the Oval.
As it turned out, they endured a terrible outing instead and conceded 327/3 on the board at stumps on Day 1. Travis Head and Steve Smith starred with the bat for Australia, returning with 146* and 95* respectively.
After the day’s play, former head coach Ravi Shastri expressed disappointment over India's defensive approach, saying that Rohit did not show a "positive mindset" by opting to bowl in the WTC final.
"From what came out today, the mindset was to field if they won the toss, hence the choices in the bowling department -- four seamers one spinner," Shastri told ICC.
"If the mindset was positive you'd want to bat, rough it out in the first session and see if you can put 250 on board. Don't think too big 250-260 and if the conditions got better and you saw the first session through, you could have got more," he added.
India had reduced Australia to 76/3 at one stage but the duo of Head and Smith stitched an unbeaten 251-run partnership for the fourth wicket to put their team in a commanding position.
According to Shastri, Australia are in a dominant position and it's up to Pat Cummins and his men to let India bounce back.
"I think Australia are in a prime position now. It's up to them to allow India back into the game, they batted beautifully, especially in the first session of play and that really set things up," Shastri said.
The former cricketer-turned-commentator reckons India can only fight back in the match by making the most of the new ball on Day 2.
"You have to think wickets, if you wait for things to happen this game is gone. Australia will be another 200 runs by tea time tomorrow if not more. So think wickets try and make the second new ball count in the first 45 minutes of play."
"You saw what you did with Head -- better lines, into the body, lot of short stuff and take it from there and if you strike early you take it from there."
If India don't manage to claim quick wickets in the first session on Thursday (June 8) then the game will completely slip out of their hands, feels Ravi Shastri.
"Winning will become difficult. If you lose that session in the morning then you can forget about winning.
"Australia can bat India out of the contest by even wanting to bat two and a half sessions tomorrow with the way they are going they could be 600 plus," he remarked.
