Hyderabad: Cheteshwar Pujara said the Australians hardly have an idea about batting on turning tracks as the visitors continued to struggle against the Indian spinners on Monday.
After conceding a huge 266-run first innings lead, Australia lost two wickets in their second innings to Ravichandran Ashwin.
“I think they need to apply themselves. They don’t know how to go about on the turning tracks. Actually, we knew what their strengths were and we were trying to find out what were their weaknesses.
“So far we have been successful and our spinners need to continue what they are doing,” a smiling Pujara, who scored his second Test double hundred on Monday, told reporters.
Uppal has been a happy hunting ground for the Saurashtra youngster as he has now scored two big hundreds here, having scored 159 against New Zealand last year.
“So far, it has been good playing at this ground. And I think it helped playing against New Zealand and getting a hundred in the past. I knew the wicket well, so it was helpful,” he said.
Pujara said that there was some help for the spinners as well as the odd-ball was turning and jumping.
“Now there is a bit of help for spinners. There is more turn and odd-ball is jumping. So you have to apply yourself to bat well. There is help for the spinners and that’s why the wickets were falling,” he said referring to India losing nine wickets for 116 runs.
The right-hander said that he wasn’t surprised with Australia’s decision to drop Nathan Lyon.
“Not really (surprised). They had to make some changes. I don’t know whether they needed an off-spinner or left-arm spinner for sure but they needed a batsman as well. So Maxwell was a good option for them.
“Also Lyon went for lot of runs and I was comfor-table facing him. I batted well in the past against Swann and Panesar and that helped me against Australian spinners also.” (PTI)