KL Rahul expects Ravi Ashwin to turn things around

Indian opening batsman KL Rahul ruled out a disastrous Indian batting performance on the inaugural day of the second Test match against Australia by saying that the cracks on the M Chinnaswamy stadium pitch were likely to open up causing difficulties for the batters. The Indian batsmen fell short of answers to a magical show by Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon who grabbed the limelight in Bangalore.

This is the first time since 1977 that the Indian team has been bundled out to a score under 200 for three consecutive times. A mere 189 in the first innings of the Bangalore Test and a total of 212 in the whole of the first Test in Pune define the awful batting display of the hosts against the Aussie bowling attack.

Rahul was the only batsman who kept the scoreboard ticking while the others fell to make a stand against the violent Nathan Lyon who gave away just 50 runs for his 8 wickets. “The wicket was pretty dry and the cracks were prominent there. Their bowlers, especially when (Mitchell) Starc bowls from over the wicket, he creates that rough for Lyon, which helps them get that spin and bounce,” said Rahul at the end of the day.

Aussies made a solid start towards the end of the day’s play as the game was called off while the openers stood at 40 for no loss in 16 overs. A confident Rahul expects Ravichandran Ashwin to do something similar to what Lyon did to the Indians or at least come up with a performance worth applauding.

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“The cracks are opening up and it’s only getting harder to bat on this wicket. We know Ash (Ashwin) is a top-class bowler and once he gets a couple of wickets and gets into that rhythm then he is going to run through the Australian batting line-up, which we are very confident of,” Rahul said.

“(Ravindra) Jadeja didn’t get to bowl a lot today but like Lyon, he too has a lot of rough for the left-handers outside the off-stump and if he can come in and bowl consistently on the rough we will get a lot of wickets.”

The 24-year-old Rahul took the Indian scoreboard to three digits and was the only batsman to put up a fight. He admitted that he had a pending shoulder injury which he took up in Pune and kept himself away from playing the lofted shot when he was running out of support from the other end today.

“That was the stroke which was giving me a bit of a problem in Pune. So I had to restrict it. But in the last few overs, I had to look to take that chance and risk, which I knew would give me some pain. I looked to continue and tried to play a few shots, which didn’t go my way.”

According to Rahul, Lyon saw the bounce in his deliveries earlier due to the damp pitch which dried up later. “Once the ball got older, and there was more rough outside off-stump, Lyon exploited that. He kept bowling there consistently and got some purchase out of the wicket. That’s about it.”

He also treid to defend his fellow teammates up the order by saying “Virat’s ball didn’t spin as much. The whole over it was spinning and bouncing and that ball went straight, which can happen. Karun and Ajinkya looked set. We were getting runs quite easily. Our game plan was to attack the spinners whenever we could, but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”