Rahul: 'Ashwin and Jadeja can be equally effective'

India's leading scorer on day one, K. L. Rahul, believes his team's spinners can be effective on the second day, as the pitch, he says, is getting more difficult to bat.

K. L. Rahul, on his home ground, struck a solid 90, making up nearly half of India's total.

Much of the talk during the lead-up to the second Test was focused on the pitch. On a day on which a Nathan Lyon-inspired Australia bundled India out for 189, with the strip taking significant turn as early as day one,  it wasn't any different from the first Test.

"Initially the new ball was coming on to the bat really well," said K. L. Rahul. "Once the spinners came on I felt the wicket was a little damp. That's why they were getting some spin and the ball was holding onto the wicket. To drive or to go over the top wasn't really easy."

"Generally the cracks start to open up at the end of the second or the third day. But here the wicket was pretty dry and the cracks were prominent. Their bowlers, especially when [Mitchell] Starc bowls from over the wicket, he creates that rough for Lyon. He exploited that rough. He kept bowling consistently, kept asking questions and got the rewards."

K. L. Rahul's interaction with the media

 

"The damp wicket generated bounce. I felt like if I swept I could get the top edge. They had the fielders back right from the first ball. We couldn't really get the big hits or boundaries. So I looked to play time I decided to be happy with the singles and may be when they would pull the fielders in, I could take a chance. But that didn't happen because we kept losing wickets at regular intervals."

The lack of partnerships is what Rahul rued even as he termed both his 90-run knock here and the 64-run innings in Pune as "satisfying."

"We need to build more partnerships. That becomes my responsibility also to tell the batsman coming in what shots we can play and how we can hold on to these partnerships. This didn't happen in Pune and as well as here."

Rahul felt that India's spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja could be as effective as Lyon.

"The cracks are opening up and its only getting harder to bat. We know once Ashwin gets a couple of wickets, he can run through the Australian batting line-up. [Ravindra] Jadeja didn't get to bowl a lot today but like Lyon, if he too can come in and bowl consistently on the rough we will get wickets."