India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has expressed confidence on bouncing back during Day 02 of the Pink-ball test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024.
Mitchell Starc dominated the entire ground by picking six wickets on Day 01 of the Adelaide Test. Yashasvi Jaiswal‘s dismissal on the opening day’s first ball and a delivery peach to remove Ravichandran Ashwin was arguably the best work in the test format.
Notably, Australia finished strongly with 86 runs by the end of day 01 and are 94 runs behind India’s total and have nine wickets in hand.
“I know that the scores look like there is a big gap between the two teams but we still feel we are in the game and with a few tweaks tomorrow, we can get back in the game,” said Doeschate.
Ten Doeschate has also heaped praise on all-rounder Nitish Reddy after playing a crucial knock of 42 to take India to a total of 180.
“We’re so chuffed with him,” India’s assistant coach said. “I think getting us to 150 in that first game was amazing. Just the way he went about his work. He is obviously playing his first pink-ball game.”
That’s Stumps on Day 1
Australia trail by 94 runs
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“There’s a little bit of work to do. He’s very raw… He’s done everything a young player could do in a very short space of time and we think he’s got a very high ceiling.”
Ten Doeschate also revealed the team’s management thought process on picking Ravichandran Ashwin over Washington Sundar for the Pink-ball test.
“I guess going into the last Test, we wanted to strengthen the batting and given what we saw of Nitish in the first Test, we kind of thought we could go with what we perceived to be the guys bowling the best spin at the moment, and we feel Ash (Ashwin) is more likely to get wickets on these conditions,” said Ten Doeschate.
On the other hand, Australia seemed chuffed with Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne batted during the challenging twilight period.
“It’s a good way to finish the day,” Starc said. “A good day all out. But inarguably, the hardest time to bat is that third session with the brand new pink ball.”
“So, to finish the day one down, particularly from Marn (Labuschagne) and McSweeney, to fight through sustained pressure from a quality bowling attack and to come out the other end.”
“We have a chance to go on tomorrow, it was fantastic from them. Obviously, a fair bit of outside noise. Very pleased for them.”
Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne stands unbeaten with 38 and 20 on day 01 stumps.
