Even before one ball was bowled there was a lot of speculation about the Pune track. Australia captain Steven Smith has dropped a bombshell indicating that the track, the venue of the first Test against India, will be a rank turner where the ball will spin from day one as he has not seen a wicket like this before.
The Indian team's assistant coach Sanjay Bangar has a remedy.
He said one can bat with proper application on this track at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
"When you go to England, you have to negotiate seaming ball, in Australia you negotiate the bouncing ball and when you come to India you negotiate the turning ball.
"If you see, at the end of the day the score is still 256/9 and that is a lot of runs. The batsmen who applied themselves have shown that runs can be scored on this track," Bangar said.
"It's not that there was variable bounce. As Team India we never complain of any pitch when we go abroad, and it’s just a day 1 of a Test match. And we are hopeful of, by where it (Test) stands, the next four days of cricket.
"Obviously, we would have been very happy had we batted in the evening. But we have seen in the past when our lower order has contributed a lot.
"So, all credit to (Mitchell) Starc because he came out and backed himself and played those shots. Because of that partnership they were able to end the day in a good position. I think we were expecting them to be bowled out around 230 or less than that. But they applied themselves," he added.
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