India have learnt their lessons from the debacle in Pune and will not repeat the mistakes in the second test against Australia, captain Virat Kohli said on Friday.
Kohli’s men entered the series with a 19-test unbeaten streak but were thumped by 333 runs inside three days on a spin-friendly track in the series opener in Pune, reports Reuters.
Kohli blamed the setback on his team’s lack of intent but promised a better display in the second test starting on Saturday.
“Obviously you want to forget if a result does not go your way. But it is important the loss should hurt you and you learn from that,” Kohli told reporters at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
“If you play well every day, every session, then you will win the test match. We didn’t do that. We understand that and we will improve on those areas till the end of the series.
“But I assure you that you will not see a repeat of that kind of performance.”
India were bundled out for 105 and 107 in their two innings with Australia left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe picking up 12 wickets in the test match.
The poor performance drew flak from the local media but Kohli, 28, said the players were not really perturbed.
“Our focus was always to win games, every game that we play and the focus remains the same. It doesn’t matter whether we lose or win. It’s the way we play,” he said.
“The last game was a disappointment in the way we played. It wasn’t more of the result … When you don’t have enough intent during the game and you lose the game, that’s when it hurts.
“I think that’s all that we made of it. The comments or the headlines don’t matter to us, they never have. We don’t base our cricket on that stuff.”
