ADELAIDE: India’s first innings hero Cheteshwar Pujara on Thursday conceded that the top-order should have batted better on day one of the first Test against Australia.
Pujara’s 16th Test hundred and first in Australia helped India recover to 250-9 at stumps, after they had been reduced to 127-6 at one stage.
“We should have batted better but they also bowled well in the first two sessions. I knew that I had to stay patient and wait for the loose balls.
The way they bowled, they bowled in the right areas. I also felt that our top order should have batted better but they will learn from the mistakes,” he said on Thursday.
“Hopefully we will bat well in the second innings. As far as my innings is concerned, I had prepared well and overall I have the experience of first-class and Test cricket and that came in handy today,” he said.
Pujara put on vital partnerships with R Ashwin and Ishant Sharma in the end, as the Australian pacers tired. He opened up and played a few more shots to take India to what the batsman ascertained to be a competitive total.
He added that the wicket wasn’t as easy to bat on, and that he needed to take a lot of time to play his shots, which again reflected poorly on how the Indian top-order batted on Thursday.
“It has to be different because when you are batting with the tail, you never know how long can they bat. You have to take your chances but you can’t do the same when you are batting with a (top order) batsman. When you are just 1 or 2 down, you can’t play the same shots.” Said Pujara (PTI)
