Dinesh Karthik sends warning to India after bad outing on Day 1 of WTC final against Australia

Team India didn’t have a great outing on Day 1 of the World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval in England. After dismissing Usman Khawaja early for a duck, the Indian bowlers failed to capitalize on the opportunity to go ahead of the Aussies and ended up taking only 3 wickets as Australia finished Day 1 on 327 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 85 overs.

India started off the day well as they sent three Australian batters back to the pavilion for 76 runs. But after that, Steve Smith and Travis Head took the innings further and didn’t let any wicket fall for the rest of the day with an unbeaten partnership of 251 runs for the fourth wicket. Travis Head scored the first-ever Hundred of the WTC final as he is still unbeaten on 146 runs off 156 balls with 22 fours and a six, while Steve Smith is just five runs away from his Hundred as he is unbeaten on 95 runs off 227 balls with 14 boundaries.

Immediately, we will start looking at draw as a win: Dinesh Karthik

Reflecting on India’s performance on Day 1, veteran Wicket keeper batter Dinesh Karthik said that Indian bowlers need to take early wickets on Day 2 to prevent Australia to score 400 runs. He said that India can see it as a win if they can draw the Test match.

“If India need to come back in the game, make no mistake, there's only chance is if they pick 3 early wickets in the first session. If they don't do that, we will be way behind. Immediately, we will start looking at draw as a win. Australia have a long batting lineup, if you don't get them before 400-420, it's going to be a real hard work,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.

For India, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, and Shardul Thakur were the only wicket-takers. Rohit Sharma and the company will be looking to put early pressure on the Australian batters to make a comeback in the Test match and clinch the Test mace in their second attempt