"Chance India had to come back in this match has gone away" - Ajay Jadeja
Former batsman Ajay Jadeja believes India's chance to make a comeback in the ongoing Test in Sydney has gone away. After the end of the first session on Day 4, Jadeja felt India were defensive to start with, and Australia played smartly even though they lost two wickets in the first session.
India persisted with their leg side trap at the start of Day 4 and kept the scoring down as Marnus Labuschagne, and Steve Smith only scored six runs off the first seven overs. Navdeep Saini made two breakthroughs, but India were already behind the eight ball by then as the lead had stretched to 276 runs by the end of the first session. Speaking on Sony Network, Ajay Jadeja said:
"India were defensive to start with, and Australia were smart enough to realise that, and they played it totally differently. You saw that last evening, where they came back attacking and put you on the back foot. This morning you had an answer for that, somebody like Bumrah, Ashwin or Saini whenever they came on to bowl, your fields were, you were probably looking to restrict them. Think Australia are happy at this stage with ball not that hard and not doing much. The chance India had to come back in this match has probably gone away."
India would have made an early inroad in the first session but Hanuma Vihari dropped an easy catch at short square leg on the second ball of the day. Marnus Labuschagne was given a life, and he went on to score 73.
Glenn McGrath feels Australia needs three and a half sessions to bowl out India
World Cup winner Glenn McGrath also felt that Australia have enough runs on the board as he believed batting would be tough on Day 5. He talked about how much time Australia would need to bowl out India and said:
"Probably, you want a full day and a session this afternoon. I think runs are hard to come by, and you have got enough runs to defend. At least three-and-a-half sessions."
As things stand, India are staring down a defeat in the Sydney Test as Australia have set them a target of 407. India's position is worsened by the fact that they could be without Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the second innings as both of them suffered respective injuries while batting earlier.