Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja feels that they are still in the good position in the ongoing Perth Test despite the Indian skipper Virat Kohli and the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane put the visitors into the comfortable position at the stumps on day two.
After Australia was bowled out for 326 runs in their first innings, India had a very poor start as they were 8/2 by losing both the openers cheaply. Cheteshwar Pujara and the skipper Virat Kohli came to rescue the visitors as they had a patience 74-run partnership for the third wicket.
After getting well settled down, Pujara was caught behind on 24 runs off 103 balls. Since then, the skipper Kohli and the Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane took the control in that innings till the end of the day. Both completed their respective half-centuries and they are carrying the innings very well as they have a 90-run unbroken partnership for the fourth wicket.
While India finished the day on 172/3, Kohli is batting on 82 off 181 balls (9 fours) and Rahane is batting on 51 off 103 balls (6 fours and only six). At the end of the day, the visitors are trailing by 154 runs.
As the visitors are still trailing by 154 runs, Khawaja feels that they still have enough chance to take control of the game.
Khawaja told at the end of the day, “We haven’t lost the upper hand and are still ahead of the game. Ajinkya Rahane came out and took on the short ball but we pegged them back as bowlers started bowling well. We need to do it consistently through the whole period. We knew that but some days it comes easy, some days it doesn’t.
“Hopefully tomorrow we can be a little bit better. They are still 140 behind. It took them 70 overs to get 170-odd. One or two wickets in first session will be pretty big for us.”
Also read: Ishant Sharma: We Feel Pretty Confident Whenever Virat Kohli Is Batting
In the first Test of the series at Adelaide, the Aussie bowlers kept quiet the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. However, they have failed to imitate this in the ongoing Test at Perth.
Praising Kohli’s batting, Khawaja said, “Virat is a good batsman. He respects good bowlers. All our bowlers bowled well in patches today. Sometimes they nick it sometimes they don’t. We just have to keep putting it in right place in the right time. We have to be disciplined enough to get those edges and a bit of luck is needed.
“If you give him opportunity to score, he will take it. He was on it today and gave him a couple fuller balls, so he hit us but at same time we had to attack stumps and see what the wicket had to offer.”
As the track is not easy for the new unsettled batsmen, Khawaja feels breaking the Kohli-Rahane partnership at early day three will bring a good opportunity for them.
Khawaja added, “Hopefully we can get a couple of wickets early, break this partnership because this is not an easy pitch to start on. We still have to start off well tomorrow and have that chance at their tail but still have to be quite disciplined.”
