BENGALURU: With just two days remaining for the start of the second Test between India and Australia, there is only one topic doing the rounds — the pitch. The Pune match was a disaster for the hosts. And though the ICC gave the Pune pitch a poor rating on Tuesday, the teams are trying to play down the issue. Perhaps, it is their way of not getting pressurised by external factors.
The pitch is just being termed as a challenging one. In India opener M Vijay’s case, he prefers not to worry about it and tries to adapt to such conditions.
“I don’t go into a match seeing how the wicket is, but with an open mind. If the wicket does something extra, I try and adapt. I don’t think it (Pune) was a poor wicket. It was a lot more challenging from the first ball,” the Tamil Nadu lad said here on Wednesday.
In fact, Vijay prefers a challenge as opposed to something that aids one’s skill. “We need such wickets rather than just flat tracks or seaming wickets. It tests your ability, and I take it that way. It’s a good thing for me, as such tracks test your abilities. We should’ve done better in the first innings, as the match would’ve gone on longer,” he explained.
Vijay added that the Chinnaswamy pitch here looked much better, and the Indians were hoping to put up a better show.
Australia opener David Warner, too, said there was no pitch preferrence, and left the rest to officials.
“It’s obviously up to the ICC and match referee to deal with that,” he told journalists.
“There’s been wickets that have been not too similar to what was produced. You’ve got greentops, spinning wickets, the ones that explode and take chunks from the first day. But we’ve just got to adapt to conditions and that gets dealt with afterwards.”
Warner had some praise for a Bengaluru wicket that has produced some good games. “This wicket has always been a fantastic one, and a great ground to play at. It has small boundaries, a fast outfield and the wicket itself is good. It doesn’t usually break up a lot if it’s a hard surface.”
Putting the pitch issue aside, fact of the matter is that the Indians have to bounce back here. “We have accepted the fact and want to move forward. We’re eager to start afresh and put pressure back on them. This is going to be a test of character, and a challenge,” Vijay felt.
The 32-year-old credited bowlers for restricting the visitors to 260 in the first innings in Pune. “The bowlers did well, and gave batsmen a chance to put up a big total. It didn’t happen, and we didn’t apply ourselves well. To be honest, Australia played well in the second innings,” he said, while also adding that the home team needed to use the 15 seconds better while asking for DRS verification.
vivekphadnis@newindianexpress.com