India vs Australia: ‘India learnt from that’ - Zaheer Khan lists India’s positives despite Adelaide debacle

When a team gets bowled out for 36, it’s hard to see the positives. Yet, former India fast bowler Zaheer Khan has urged the Indian team to put their performance in Adelaide on the backburner, and head into the second Test, taking confidence from the few positives in the first game.

The silver lining around the otherwise dark cloud, as per Zaheer, is the fact that India announced their Playing XI ahead of the first Test, and captain Virat Kohli’s decision to bat first after winning the toss, signalling intent, along with a few more.

“The first positive for India was that the playing XI was announced a day before. I feel it was a big positive because you showed confidence in the playing XI,” Zaheer said on the Sony Sports Network.

“The second positive was opting to bat after winning the toss. You showed that however good an attack Australia may have, we will play according to the conditions. The first day was very good. Pujara and Virat Kohli had set a platform although we may have fallen short by 40-50 runs of the number of runs that should have been scored.”

Zaheer felt India’s bowling showed fortitude in the first innings to bowl Australia out for 191 and gain a first-innings lead of 53 runs. R Ashwin was the best bowler on display picking up 4/55, while an improved show from Umesh Yadav (3/40) and Jasprit Bumrah 2/52), ensured Australia ended well short of India’s first innings total.

“Bowling made a very good comeback. There were problems about length at the start, even the Australian bowlers had that issue in the first innings. India learnt from that,” Zaheer added.

“Ashwin was another positive as you want your main spinner to play a good role in these conditions, get the breakthroughs. He got Smith out and picked up three wickets during that period. He overall took four wickets in the first innings.”