Indian skipper Rohit Sharma admitted the lost opportunities cost them the game after their 10-wicket loss against Australia in the second pink-ball Test of the Border-Gavaskar series at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday.
India was bundled out for 180 runs in the first innings after electing to bat first as the batters once again failed to deliver in the first innings. Rookie all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored with 42 runs in both innings but the rest of the batters could not show much resistance.
On the other hand, Travis Head, who scored a blistering knock of 140 runs off just 141 balls, was given two lives by the Indian fielders and it proved to be costly. Mohammed Siraj dropped Head’s catch when he was on 76 and then a few balls later, Rishabh Pant didn’t even go for the catch with the first slip standing wide.
Rohit admitted that Australia played better than them on all three days of the Test match and the home team deserved to win.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “Disappointing week for us, we didn’t play well enough to win the game and Australia played better than us. There were times in the game where we could have grabbed those opportunities but we failed to do that and that cost us the game. What we did in Perth was very special, we wanted to come out here and do that again but every Test match has its own challenge.”
He added, “We knew it was going to be challenging with the pink ball. Like I said, Australia was better than us. We are quite looking forward to it (Gabba Test), there’s not much time in between as well. We want to go out there and think about what we did right in Perth and what we did last time when we were here. Some really good memories there, hopefully we understand the challenges of every Test match. We want to start well and play well.”
Meanwhile, Rohit could not lead from the front as he returned with scores of 3 and 6 in the second Test. The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 14.
