WTC Final 2023: If the mindset was positive, you want to bat come what may – Ravi Shastri on India’s decision to field first

Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri feels India’s mindset was not positive after Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first against Australia in the World Test Championship final on Wednesday. As the conditions were overcast, the Indian skipper decided to put the opposition into bat but the decision backfired.

At the end of the day’s play, Australia was in a dominating position at 327-3 with Travis Head and Steve Smith batting unbeaten on 146 and 95 runs respectively.

Shastri feels India should have batted first irrespective of the conditions on offer. Australia scored 73 runs in the opening session, 97 runs in the middle session, and smashed 157 runs in the final session of play.

In fact, after one hour’s play, the sun was baking down at the Kennington Oval, London, and batting became easier for the Australian batters.

“What came out today, the mindset was to field if they won the toss, hence the choices in the bowling department – 4 seamers and 1 spinner. If the mindset was positive, you want to bat come what may, rough it out in that first session of play and then see if you can put 250 on the board. Dont think too big, 250-260 and if the conditions got better and you saw off that first session you could have got more,” said Shastri while talking to the ICC.

The former Indian all-rounder added India needs to take quick wickets with the second new ball on the second day to have any hopes of making a comeback.

“You’ve got to think wickets, in a situation like this if you are going to wait for things to happen this game’s gone, Australia will be another 200 runs ahead by tea time tomorrow, if not more. So you’ve got to think wickets, try and make the second new ball count in that first 45 minutes of play. You would have seen what you did with Head today, better lines into the body , lot of short stuff and take it from there. If you strike a couple early, you take one step at a time,” added Shastri.

Shastri added the way Travis Head and Steve Smith are batting, Australia could post a Brobdingnagian score of more than 600 runs.

“Winning will become difficult if they lose that session in the morning because Australia will bat India out of the contest by even wanting to bat two and a half sessions tomorrow. With the way they are going, they could be 600+. I think Australia is in a prime position. It’s up to them now to really allow India back into this game because they’ve batted beautifully, great application in that first session of play that really set things up.”

India is under the cosh and they will need some magic on the second day’s play to stage a comeback.