Bengaluru: A little more than two weeks into their Indian tour the Australian team is on a high. And why not? Having put paid to Team India’s aspirations on a pitch that was tailor-made to suit the hosts, Steve Smith’s men are understandably buoyant.
David Warner, the flamboyant New South Wales opener, who strikes terror in the heart of the bowlers, had a quiet match by his exceptional standards but the massive win in Pune has fired them up like never before.
Excerpts:
On the mood around camp:
The guys are obviously proud of what we achieved in last Test. It was one win but it was a long time coming so the boys are proud of that moment but now we’ve got the second Test here in Bangalore and we’ll start preparation here today.
On the different feel around group since Hobart (where they were rolled over by the South African quicks for 85 in November)?
Obviously, quite painful that loss at home especially and we said before to South Africa’s credit we played well. But we’ve moved on from that. We’re sitting here 1-0 up in a four Test match series where no one thought we would win a Test match. We’re proud of where we’ve come but now we’ve got three more Tests to go and we’ll start our preparation today.
On how it has brought the team closer:
I think it takes a loss like that at home sometimes to really get guys going. It’s not that we needed that it’s just the fact it’s a bit of a reality check really that you can, one bad session, or one bad Test it can be taken away from you even on home soil. We’ve had the preparation in Dubai which has been fantastic and we’re grateful for that opportunity and it’s really put us in a really good position coming here to India.
On their plans to stop India now from lifting from defeat:
We know the leaders India has as well so they’re always going to come back hard. And we expect that they’re the No.1 Test team in the world and they’re a great bunch of players and we know what to expect. We saw all the tricks in Pune, their bowling changes, their fielding placements, the way they play as a No.1 team, so for us to beat them on home soil was awesome and fantastic but we know they’re going to come back harder and we’ve just got to adapt to the conditions again with what we face here in Bangalore.
On the Pune pitch:
That’s obviously up to the ICC and the match referees to deal with that. There’s been wickets around the world that have been not too similar to what was produced, but we were talking about it before, you’ve got green tops, you’ve got spinning wickets, you’ve got ones that sort of explode and take chunks out from day one. But at the end of the day we’ve just got to go out there and adapt to the conditions and that gets dealt with afterwards.
