After three disastrous innings, undone by spin on all three occasions, it is tempting to say that the Indians may as well head to Dubai between the second and third Tests and train on the spinning wickets there just as the Australians did prior to this tour
India's KL Rahul celebrates his 50 against Australia in Bangalore on Saturday. Pic/PTI
Bangalore: After three disastrous innings, undone by spin on all three occasions, it is tempting to say that the Indians may as well head to Dubai between the second and third Tests and train on the spinning wickets there just as the Australians did prior to this tour.
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But KL Rahul (90), the one man to offer resistance to the marauding Australian spinners, refused to accept that the situation was anywhere as grim. On the other hand he chose to defend the rather tame dismissals of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Karun Nair, even if the latter two had spent decent time out in the middle before blindly stepping out to Nathan Lyon and Stephen O'Keefe to be easily stumped.
Did the trio throw their wickets, Rahul was asked. "I don't think so. As a batsman you have to look to unsettle the bowlers and take some chances sometimes. Virat's ball didn't spin as much. The whole over it was spinning and bouncing and that ball went straight, which can happen," explained Rahul. Kohli was out leg before not offering a shot.
"Karun and Ajinkya looked set, they were batting on 20 each. We were getting runs quite easily. Our gameplan was to attack the spinners whenever we could but sometimes it just doesn't go your way," he added.
K Rahul. Pic/PTI
Rahul promised a fightback. "It's just one day up, there are four more days to go. The cracks are opening up and it's only getting harder to bat on this wicket. We know Ash (Ashwin) is a top-class bowler and once he gets a couple of wickets and gets into that rhythm then he is going to run through the Australian batting line-up, which we are very confident of."
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