'We Kind Of Thought...': India's Assistant Coach On Why Ashwin Was Preferred Over Sundar For Pink Ball Test

Ravichandran Ashwin was preferred over Washington Sundar for the second Test here because the Indian team management reckoned the senior off-spinner would be more effective on the Adelaide Oval surface, assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Friday. 

Also, Ashwin's record in pink-ball Tests helped him pip Ravindra Jadeja and Sundar in the playing XI.

Australia dominated the opening day's play and reached 86/1 at stumps after bowling out India for 180 in their first innings, making a strong comeback following the 295-run hammering they received at the hands of the visitors in the series opener at Perth.

"Yeah, Washy hasn't put a foot wrong since he's come into the fold, halfway through that New Zealand series... I guess the thinking going into the last Test, we wanted to strengthen the batting," ten Doeschate said at the post-day press conference.

"And given what we saw of Nitish in the first Test, we kind of thought we'd go with what we perceived to be the guys bowling the best spin at the moment. And we feel Ash is more likely to get wickets in these conditions."

"When you get the confidence of Nitish batting at 7, it doesn't really matter with Ash batting at 8. And that was the thinking. Not much to choose between them. And we just thought that Ash would be slightly more effective on this wicket," he added.

Australia will enter the second day trailing by only 94 runs and with nine wickets in hand, but ten Doeschate felt India can still turn things around and will draw inspiration form their remarkable comeback in the Perth Test.

"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 (Saturday), we can get back in the game," India's assistant coach told the media.

"This team doesn't need the coaches to go into the dressing room and say we need to fight. The guys understand that implicitly and it's obviously a very proud team who wants to come here and do well.

"We feel slightly behind the game now but there certainly won't be any letting up and certainly won't be any surrendering. There certainly is a little bit of swing and a little bit of seam still there. So we're pretty confident we can still turn it around."

He added, "At Perth, we got bowled out for 150 and still we got back into that game. This is a proud team and the players want to come here and do well. We may be slightly behind in the game now but there certainly won't be any surrendering."

He was asked if playing less matches with pink ball had something to do with the performance of the team on Friday.

"I just think it's the nature of it. If you're going to bring the pink ball into it, it's obviously great for the crowds. It's a little bit different for the players and we try to use the week as best we can to help them to adapt to the small differences.

"I don't think there are huge differences and I certainly don't think there's anything to read into about how the guys performed today.

He added that things happen a bit faster with the pink ball.

"Things happen in clumps, we lost wickets in clumps, which we wanted to avoid. I also thought that Mitchell's (Starc) stock ball was very good and there are lessons to be learnt from that first innings. We will look at how we can play better in the second innings."

The assistant coach was full of praise for 21-year-old all-rounder Reddy, who stood out with his solid knock on the first day and dragged India to 180.

"We are so chuffed with him. From the prep week in Perth, where he looked like he still needed to figure things out, the way he worked in Perth and the game plans he implemented in Perth, to get crucial runs there, I think to get us to 150 in that first game was amazing.

"Just the way he's gone about his work here. It's obviously the first pink ball game he's playing in. There's still a little bit of work to do. He's very raw. But for a young kid, a 21-year-old, to come out like that and play three innings of the quality he has, it's super exciting.

"There's obviously a chat about Washy not playing. But 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 said India will look to go all out in the first session of the second day.

"I think we'll go as hard as we can in the morning but be slightly conscious of what the rest of the day looks like and what we need to do to get back into the game."