Cheteshwar Pujara has cited several reasons for India‘s loss in the second Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He highlighted the visitors’ ‘wrong’ bowling strategy against Travis Head as a key factor in the defeat.
Australia claimed a dominant 10-wicket victory in the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, leveling the five-match series. Head was named Player of the Match for his crucial 140-run innings in Australia’s first innings. In an interview on the Star Sports show ‘Follow the Blues,’ Pujara was asked to pinpoint the main reason for India’s loss.
“When you lose a match, it’s not one reason. There are many reasons. Firstly, the batting in the first innings. Less runs were scored there. 180 runs were scored when 250-275 should have been made. After that, when we bowled on the same day, we got only one wicket,” he responded.
“We were bowling under the lights. The Australian batters batted very well. We will have to praise them, but along with that, the bowling could have been much better. We could have picked two or three wickets there. After that, the game plan against Travis Head was wrong,” Pujara added.
Pujara noted that India failed to bowl enough bouncers to Head, which gave him the freedom to score easily on the off-side.
“The tactics could have been better. You could have bowled more bouncers against him. We shouldn’t have given so many runs on the off-side. There was a mistake there,” the veteran India batter observed.
Head came in to bat with Australia at 103/3 in their first innings. He blasted 140 runs off 141 balls, including 17 fours and four sixes, leading the hosts to a total of 337 and a 157-run first-innings lead.
“The fightback from the Perth Test was missing”- Pujara on India’s second-innings batting in Adelaide
On the same show, Cheteshwar Pujara stated that India couldn’t repeat their Perth second-innings batting performance in Adelaide.
“After that, batting under the lights, the approach, and the mindset the players had. I felt the fightback we showed in the second innings of the Perth Test match was not seen,” he said.
“However, whatever happened has happened. This loss was a bad dream. The pink ball is not good for India, especially in Australia. The Australian team has had a very good track record. So it was a bad dream that we should forget and move forward,” Pujara observed.
The last three BGT 2024-25 Tests will take place in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. India must win the series to stay in contention for a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
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