Sydney:
Australia coach McDonald on Rishabh pant: Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said on Saturday that he was not worried about Rishabh Pant’s aggressive batting in the second innings, but the batsman’s ultra-defensive attitude on the opening day of the match was surprising to him. Pant spent 149 minutes at the crease in the first innings and scored 40 runs in 98 balls while suffering many injuries on his body. Pant had said after this innings that he was in no mental state to attack. But in the second innings, he batted in the opposite style and hit big sixes on consecutive balls of Mitchell Starc. Pant did not even spare Scott Boland and Beau Webster and hit sixes against both the balls.

McDonald said after the second day’s play, ‘First of all, I would like to say that there was no surprise after seeing Pant’s batting today. However, we were a little surprised by his batting in the first innings. He has a great ability to put pressure on the bowlers. However, Australia’s captain pushed India on the back foot by dismissing Pant for 61 runs in the second innings.

McDonald said, ‘We had planned against him, we had planned for him for this series. During this period, we were deviating from our plans many times and trying to stop him from hitting boundaries. This was an innings about which you would say that it was right for that time.

On this tour, Virat Kohli was caught behind the wicket (by the wicketkeeper or slip fielder) on the ball outside the off stump eight times in nine innings. Australian coach McDonald had advised the team’s bowlers, especially Boland, to continue bowling outside the off-stump against Kohli. Boland dismissed the Indian legend four times in this series. When McDonald was asked whether it was easy to dismiss Kohli like this? He said, ‘No, it is never easy to get Kohli out.’

He said, ‘I will give full credit to the bowlers for implementing the plan. Making a plan is one thing, but then implementing it on the ground is another thing. Due to this he (Kohli) came under a lot of pressure. He made some strategies. He has tried to come out of his crease. He has also tried different strategies, but clearly it was very difficult for him to face our bowlers, especially Scotty (Boland). He has never been an easy wicket.