'It is not ideal....': Cheteshwar Pujara breaks down India's ineffective bowling performance on Day 1

Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara expressed his disappointment with the bowling performance led by Jasprit Bumrah during the first day of the second Test match at the Adelaide Oval. The match was played in the day-night format with the pink ball taking center stage.

Australia managed to bowl out India for a mere 180 runs after Rohit Sharma chose to bat first in Adelaide. This was largely due to the exceptional bowling display by left-arm quick Mitchell Starc, who claimed 6 wickets for 48 runs. In response, the Australian team finished the day at 86 for 1, with Nathan McSweeney (38*) and Marnus Labuschagne (20*) remaining unbeaten.

Although fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who captained the team in the first Test in Perth, managed to take the wicket of Australian opener Usman Khawaja, India struggled to make further breakthroughs. McSweeney and Labuschagne frustrated the Indian bowlers in the final session.

Pujara, who has been out of the national team since June 2023, highlighted India's mistake of not adapting their lengths and sticking to a particular strategy. This lack of flexibility may have cost them dearly in the match.

“I think so (India’s bowlers didn’t had the right lengths). We stuck to our lengths from the first game, which is not ideal length on this particular pitch where if you keep hitting between 6-8 meters length, the balls are not hitting the stumps,” Pujara told ESPNcricinfo.

“You have to be little fuller, line wise you have to be little straighter, and we haven’t been able to do that in this particular Test match so far,” he added.

Pujara, on the other hand, commended Starc for his ability to vary his lengths consistently throughout the Indian innings, resulting in the dismissal of batters at various positions.

“I think he has length. Early on, he knew that he had to hit the stump. He got a ball to swing a bit more and he pitched the ball up. I think the length was the key and he read his length really well,” Pujara said.

“With the new ball he got success, but after that he also conceded few fours. He realised that he had to change that length and he did that with the way KL and Virat got out. He varied his length really very well,” the 36-year-old added. 

India suffered an early setback as opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed on the very first ball of the match, caught in front of the stumps by Starc. However, KL Rahul (37) and Shubman Gill (31) managed to build a solid partnership of 69 runs for the second wicket, providing a glimmer of hope. Nitesh Kumar Reddy's late contribution of 42 runs off 54 balls also added some valuable runs to the total.

Despite these positive moments, veteran batsman Pujara, who boasts an impressive record of 7195 runs in 188 Test innings at an average of 43.60, expressed disappointment in India's overall performance. He believed that the team fell short of their potential and could have easily posted a score of 250 or more.

“We could have been little better. Genuinely feel that we should have got close to 250-275 on that pitch. It looked really nice. (Though) we lost the first wicket on first ball, but after that there was a partnership and that was probably the best partnership of this innings,” Pujara said. 

“We saw that even towards the end despite losing wickets, we were able to score runs. I felt that we could have been little better with the bat and we should have posted somewhere close to 250,” he added.

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