IND v AUS 2020: 'Such sessions will not come again and again' - Zaheer Khan wants India to focus on the positives

Former pacer Zaheer Khan has urged the Indian team to forget the disastrous session with the bat in the Adelaide Test and move ahead while focussing on the positives.

He made this observation while talking about the plus points for the Indian team from the first Test and the road ahead for them during a discussion on the Sony Sports network.

Zaheer Khan pointed out India naming their XI well in advance was a clear demonstration of their confidence in the team.

"The first positive for India was that the playing XI was announced a day before. I feel it was a big positive because you showed confidence in the playing XI."

The commentator observed India choosing to bat first against a potent Aussie attack was also a display of intent from their side.

"The second postive was opting to bat after winning the toss. You showed that however good an attack Australia may have, we will play according to the conditions."

Zaheer Khan highlighted India had a decent first day with the bat, with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli giving a good account of themselves, even though they may have eventually finished at a slightly below-par total.

"The first day was very good. Pujara and Virat Kohli had set a platform although we may have fallen short by 40-50 runs of the number of runs that should have been scored."

Zaheer Khan lauded the Indian pacers for quickly gauging the right length to bowl on the Adelaide pitch and putting the Aussie batsmen under pressure.

"Bowling made a very good comeback. There were problems about length at the start, even the Australian bowlers had that issue in the first innings. The Indian bowlers learnt from that."

Zaheer Khan named Ravichandran Ashwin as another positive for Team India for picking up crucial wickets including the prized scalp of Steve Smith.

"Ashwin was another positive as you want your main spinner to play a good role in these conditions, get the breakthroughs. He got Smith out and picked up three wickets during that period. He overall took four wickets in the first innings."

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Zaheer Khan on the road ahead for Team India

Zaheer Khan wants the Indian team to erase the bad session from their memories

Zaheer Khan wants the Indian team to stay positive as it was just the one bad session they had played badly. He however acknowledged that the session was so bad that it cost them the match.

"On the whole, keeping all these things in mind you need to move ahead and see this match as one where you played a bad session, yes it was that bad that we did not get a chance to get back in the match."

Zaheer Khan pointed out that there will not be a recurrence of such a session and wishes the Indian team looks forward to the next match while keeping the gains from the first game in mind.

"Such sessions will not come again and again and you have to think how you can get better. It will be better if you delete this, you need to focus on the positives and move ahead."

The former left-arm pacer observed the Aussie bowling unit will be a confident lot as they know they can run through the Indian batting lineup.

"The Australian bowling attack, when they come to the next match, will come with the confidence that India's eight wickets can also fall in a session."

Zaheer Khan signed off by stating that the only way back for India will be to regain their confidence and post a sizeable first-innings score on the board to put pressure back on the Aussies.

"So you will have to break that confidence and build your self-confidence that you can bat well in the next innings and cross the 300-350 run mark which is necessary in overseas conditions."

The Indian batting lineup will have to recover quickly from the annihilation at the hands of the Aussie quicks if they want to entertain any hopes of staging a comeback in the series. The absence of Virat Kohli from the rest of the series will be an additional setback they will have to overcome and the other batsmen will have to take the onus on themselves to deliver the goods.