Naman Ojha hails bowlers' efforts, seeks batting improvement

Naman Ojha, India A captain, is confident his batsmen can find form after an underwhelming performance during their three-wicket loss to Australia A at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Sunday (September 11).

India A capitulated after good starts in both innings of the four-day fixture, putting in sub-par efforts for a vaunted batting line-up. With mediocre scores of 230 and 156 in the match, India A undoubtedly rued their batting, as mustering another 50 runs could have been enough for their energetic bowlers to defend.

Speaking to the media after the match, Ojha believed a switch in formats was the main reason for the meek batting. "Yesterday (day three), out batters had a bad session and we need to improve on that," Ojha said. "It's all about mindset. The guys are coming from one-day matches and have a different mindset.

"They will analyse their mistakes and work in the nets. Hopefully they will be ready for the next match," he added. Juggling captaincy with wicketkeeping, Ojha said he needed to "improve" after scoring just two runs for the match batting at No.6, a far cry from his feats on this ground two years ago when he memorably produced a double century and a century against Australia A.

Encouragingly, India A's pacemen impressed throughout and fought back on numerous occasions when the team looked in dire trouble. Spearheads Shardul Thakur and Varun Aaron bowled menacingly and had the Australia A batsmen hopping with a flurry of well-pitched short deliveries.

In their first innings, accomplished Australia A batsmen Joe Burns and Peter Handscomb were dominant and appeared set to eviscerate the bowling. But India A's attack responded and Australia A collapsed losing 71 for 7.

Defending 159 for victory, India A had every opportunity of pulling off a miraculous comeback when they had the host's reeling at 50 for 4, but Brisbane's nefarious weather ended the third day prematurely, which simultaneously, stymied the visitor's chances of victory.

India A can consider themselves unlucky as the fourth and final day was delayed by four hours due to a wet outfield but, in the meantime, the sunshine was baking the pitch, ensuring friendly batting conditions when play eventually started.

Ojha said the delay was an annoyance but paid tribute to his indefatigable bowlers. "It was a bit frustrating because the covers were off," he said. "If we could have bowled in the morning, our bowlers would have had help from the moisture.

"The bowlers really played their heart out and bowled well. The pacemen bowled really well on this type of wicket and I was happy with how they defended this score," he added.

Curiously, Ojha started the final day's proceedings with off spinner Jayant Yadav, the first time he had called upon a tweaker all innings. Defending his move, Ojha said that he believed spin would've played a factor. "It's a fourth-day wicket so I thought the spinners will get a little bit of (spin) but it was really tough on the spinners because there wasn't any patches (on the wicket) for them," he said.