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Australia finished day one of fourth Test on a commanding 255/4 with Khawaja (104*) and Green (49*) in the middle. The pitch at Ahmedabad is the best suited for batting as compared to first three matches where the rank-turners made life difficult for the batters.
For Khawaja, anything fuller or on pads was met with a neat glance. There were no premeditated strokes or sweeps on offer. He rarely attacked outside the off stump, but made full use of anything coming overpitched in the afternoon session, which was also the first wicketless session of the series.
Khawaja jumped up in joy after he raised the second hundred of a low-scoring series with a boundary in the final over of the day.
“A lot of emotion in that. I have been to India two tours before this and carried the drinks for eight Test matches, so it was a long journey to finally hit a hundred in India,” Khawaja told broadcasters.
Meanwhile, India bowling coach Mhambrey termed the Motera track as a batting belter but expected that spinners will get some purchase off the track from the third day.
“Looks like a batting track. We expected that having seen the wicket yesterday, unlike other three venues that we played at,” said Mhambrey.
The former India medium pacer felt that bowlers conceded extra runs in the last 10 overs.
“First session, they batted well,” he conceded.
“Initially the runs that were leaked and second session was good for us but as the ball got old, run scoring became difficult and the last session became difficult. We conceded 56 in last 10 overs and I thought the game slightly drifted there from us. End of day, if it was 220 for 4, it would have been a good for us. Yes, we gave slightly more runs in last session.” Mhambrey opined that the wicket will remain firm even on second day.
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