Kolkata: India batting coach Sanjay Bangar on Thursday held the conditions at the Eden Gardens responsible for the batting debacle. The hosts finds themselves in a difficult situation with the first three wickets gone for only 17 runs in the 12 overs being bowled today. The stop-start play on the first day of the first test match here made life difficult for the Indian batsmen.
“I think the conditions were really tough for batting and what did not help us is we did not get an extended passage of play wherein you had 15-20 overs bowled at a batsman in a particular fashion so that didn’t allow the batsman to get into any sort of rhythm,” Bangar told reporters at the post-match press conference.
The Indian batting coach further added, “It was similar to a D/N test match. At times when you play under such circumstances, it gets difficult playing with a red ball. It is more difficult to pick the red ball.”
According to the 45 year old Bangar, patience is the key on this sort of a wicket and the batsmen have to grind out runs here.
“You’ll have to grind out quite a bit because there are going to be a lot of balls which will beat the outside and inside edge of the bat. We need to respect the conditions as a batsman and think about the next ball. If you start thinking or worrying about the amount of times you’re going to get beaten it plays on your mind.”
Bangar had no problems with the challenging wicket at the Eden Gardens.
“We are happy to play on wickets like this. This is a team which doesn’t really want to play in easy conditions. We want to challenge ourselves and I think most of the players are open to such challenges. We want to improve and continue doing that as a team. We are very happy to play on such wickets,” said Bangar.
He acknowledged the efforts of Lankan fast bowler Suranga Lakmal. The lanky pacer rattled the Indian batting with a fiery spell of fast bowling on helpful conditions at Eden Gardens. Laklmal’s figures read 6-6-0-3 at stumps on Day 1.
“He (Lakmal) put the ball in the right place. He is an experienced bowler and he put the ball in the right areas, those conditions suited him. Some of the balls that got our batsmen like KL Rahul and Virat Kohli…you can’t fault them for shot selection, those were really really good balls.”
Lastly, the batting coach defended Dhawan for playing a rash shot that brought his downfall.
“Shikhar is a stroke player, and he backs himself to play shots. Whenever it comes off it looks great. At times stroke players they can change a match in 15 overs.You want a player like Shikhar to bat in his own fashion and evrery batsman has his own way of playing and we do not want to curtail any individual style of play,” signed off Bangar.