‘We can turn it around’

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate confident Rohit Sharma & Co will make a strong comeback after tough Day One show against Australia

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.

“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.

Perth inspiration

Australia dominated the opening day’s play and reached 86-1 at stumps after bowling out India for 180 in their first innings. 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.

Ryan ten Doeschate

“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 said. “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.

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‘Won’t be any surrendering’

“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.

“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 said. 

Also Read: Did Rohit Sharma open Pandora’s box by opting to bat first in Adelaide?

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

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.” he added.

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