Brisbane, Dec 17 (IANS) India batter KL Rahul credited tailenders Akash Deep and Jasprit Bumrah for their unbeaten 39-run partnership for the last wicket that avoided a follow-on in the third Test against Australia on Tuesday.
The pacers batted their hearts out to rescue India from a dire situation on rain-hit Day 4 in Brisbane. India were 252/9 at stumps with Akash remaining unbeaten on 27 off 31 balls while Bumrah went not out on 10 runs. India still trail by 193 runs, and the possible result of the match depends on the weather conditions on Wednesday.
“It’s very good to see when the lower order chips in and scores runs. That’s something that we discuss a lot in our meetings and the bowlers work really hard on their batting as well and so it’s really good to see that they could go there and get that little partnership and avoid the follow-on makes a huge difference knowing that there’s a bit of rain around and so much of the game has been lost to rain. We need to find a way to stay in the game and I think Akash and Bumrah did that at the end and so a good way to end the day for us,” Rahul, who scored 84 in the match, said in the press conference at the end of the day’s play.
“I’m happy that they could really play some shots and very exciting shots and it was a great contest at the end, the last half an hour, when they batted not just the runs that they got, just the heart that they showed to keep away the bouncers. There’s a lot of pace and bounce in the wickets, so to get behind the ball, defend really well, leave the ball and hit some nice shots is really good. It will give them confidence and will give us as a group a lot of confidence,” he added.
When asked about the message from the dressing room during the last-wicket partnership between Akash and Bumrah, Rahul said it was all about avoiding rash shots and reaching the follow-on target.
“Yeah it’s very simple, try and get those runs and don’t have to try and do it with a boundary; you can still knock it around and get those singles because they spread the field, so those singles were there to be taken to stay a bit more patient. Because we saw just before the message went out, Akash tried to hit a boundary. So just a message to calm it down and see if they can get five or six singles and get the follow on,” the opening batter said.
Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were the only Indian batters to score half-centuries in the first innings, and the duo also stitched a 67-run stand before the former was dismissed by Nathan Lyon for 84 in the opening session of the day. Rahul praised Jadeja’s crucial contribution of 77 runs and backed his batting skills.
“He was brilliant today. He has been brilliantly batting down the order for us for many, many years, that’s what we expect of Jadeja and he’s proven that he can do this and he’s done this for so many years. Really happy that firstly I could stitch a partnership with him. When he came in it was really needed at that stage and then he went on to score 70-80 runs with the tail, which was crucial for us just to get past that follow-on firstly and see how many runs we can put on board.
“He made that possible and yeah he’s a very experienced guy he’s played there for so many years so he understands exactly what he needs to do and how he needs to perform and get runs for the team at that stage. It’s only Jadeja’s bowling that’s spoken about, but I think he’s been a great performer even with the bat.
“He has a really solid technique, and I enjoy batting with him. I enjoy watching him play and watching him train at practice. He seems to have his game plan really simple and really sorted so I’m really happy that he could come into the team and do the job for us,” Rahul concluded.
–IANS
ab/bc
