‘Intent Was Really Good’: Cheteshwar Pujara Lauds KL Rahul, Shubman Gill After Day 1 Of IND vs AUS Pink Ball Test

The Indian team had a tough outing with the bat on the first day of the ongoing pink ball Test against Australia in Adelaide. Despite all the struggles, veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara praised KL Rahul and Shubman Gill’s intent at the crease. The duo put together a crucial stand of 69 runs in the middle.

The Indian team sustained an early blow in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal who got out on the very first ball of the pink-ball Test. Even though wickets kept falling, the likes of Rahul and Gill batted with a lot of patience and ended up forging a vital stand for the Indian team.

While speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Pujara said, "Their intent was really good. They were quite positive. They forced the bowlers to move their length because they were pitching it up. They played really well, but they forced the Aussie bowlers to go back off length and that's where I think we didn't tackle that well. Most of the dismissals from our top order, apart from Yashasvi, KL got out to a ball which was rising a bit, Virat got out to a ball which was back of length. He wasn't decisive whether to play or leave that ball, and Gil got out to a fuller ball”.

"So we didn't tackle the back of the length balls well, which is the key, especially with the new ball. With the pink ball and I felt that that middle order could have batted a bit better," he added.

KL Rahul was eventually snared for 37 and Shubman made 31 as India got out to 180 runs in the first Innings. Star player Nitish Kumar Reddy was the top scorer for the Indian team, scoring 42 runs.

Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (C), Alex Carey (WK), Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah(vc), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Abhimanyu Easwaran.