Melbourne, Feb 3: Australia T20I captain George Bailey lauded the Indian team for their brilliant effort as he spoke to the media after the visitors’ eight-wicket win in the second and last T20I between the two sides. Bailey said that his side experimented with the winning line-up of the first T20I to test their options in the lead up to the T20 World Cup.
Excerpts from Bailey’s press conference:
On making three changes in the line-up
One of the things that you want to get out of the way is try a few people in a few different spots […] It was as much about trying to win as it was about trying to find out what different people can do in different situations.
On whether India’s fielding surprised them
They certainly lifted their fielding from the other day and we thought about out-fielding them. We thought if we out-fielded them we would win the game and that certainly wasn’t the case because they out-fielded us and they won the game. We were surprised that they probably didn’t field as well on Wednesday night. They are a very good fielding side with some of the new guys that have come in into the Twenty20 and one-day teams. Suresh [Raina], Virat [Kohli], [Ravindra] Jadeja are very good fielders so there is a different energy in the Indian side in the shorter format.
On the next series against West Indies
We will certainly start to look at that. We’ve got some players [like] [Shane] Watson, [Michael] Hussey, Patrick Cummins as well [but] at some stage you’ve got to start [to look] not only [at] the guys that you want but the roles that you want them to play. It was a great opportunity to play some different people in different areas with the bat and the ball. At some stage we have to start homing in but this worked well in having a look at some different people.
On whether he was surprised at the inclusion of Rahul Sharma
He has bowled really well. We actually thought he might be a little lazy tonight on a quicker wicket because he bowls quite fast but he adjusted really well. [He] gives very little width to hit which is where we were going to get hurt tonight and he did well to play given that there was some serious bandaging on the hand […].
On the awkward bounce that Rahul Sharma gets when bowling
He certainly does and he is only a little quicker than what you expect. He is not a big turner of the ball but the bounce that he creates makes him hard to hit, particularly with that extra pace if he is not giving the width that you are looking for.
On the Indian side
It would have been nice to win this before the one-day series but full credit to them. They outplayed us tonight. […] It’s disappointing that we lost and India got their first win. It’s a bit surprising that it has taken this long on the tour for India to get their first win up.
On things that they would be working on
Not a great deal but individually there will certainly be things. We have worked on things this week in training sessions while preparing for these two games but also what we are going to encounter in West Indies and Sri Lanka. […]
On whether he was disappointed with the batting and the bowling
Not necessarily disappointed with the batting or bowling from this series. […] Run-outs and the stumping, that really hurt us. But I certainly wasn’t disappointed with our bowling. We kept creating [opportunities] tonight […] We want to keep attacking, we want to take wickets but we also can’t give plenty of gaps where they can just tick the scoreboard along. […] I think we have got a pretty good mix, some great young all-rounders. Also, with Shane Watson [currently] out of the team, we’ve got another good old all-rounder there, so I think one of our strengths is going to be our versatility come World Cup time.
