Australia batter Peter Handscomb believes that the visitors’ total in the first innings of the second Test is ‘par total’. “Conversations we were having around lunch and tea was (that) about 250 was a par score,” he told SEN Test Cricket after the day’s play. “So we were hoping to get there and then anything after that was going to be a bonus for us. “(But) you can’t judge a wicket completely until both sides have batted on it so we’ll wait and see what happens tomorrow. But I think there’s been some good signs already with our bowlers and the ball, there’s a couple of tricks there,” he added. Handscomb (72 not out) played a pivotal role in Aussie’s total of 263. He walked in to bat when Australia had lost their prime batters and had only 108 runs on the board. Batting with Usman Khwaja and skipper Cummins, the Victorian helped his side put up a decent target for the hosts. Peter Handscomb has shown tremendous grit to get to his fifty 👏 #WTC23 | #INDvAUS | 📝: pic.twitter.com/FPNgCap9QT — ICC (@ICC) February 17, 2023 Speaking about the wickets, Handscomb seemed optimistic as he said, “A bit of luck and a couple of good balls and we can get 10 wickets (on Saturday).” Talking about India’s batting and how he learns from the, the batter said, “I’ve been doing a lot of work on my plans, writing a lot of stuff down, thinking about it, watching how the Indian cricket team go about their batting,” the 31-year-old added. “They’re the best in these conditions and they’re very, very good at it, so just watching them last week, learning from them and trying to implement that,” he added. Talking about India’s batting, Team India were 21 for no loss after bowling out Australia for 263 when stumps were called on the opening day of the second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy on Friday. Skipper Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were batting on 13 and 4 respectively when the final session ended on day one. India trail the visitors by 242 runs. Earlier, seasoned seamer Mohammed Shami (4/60) accounted for four Australian batters.
