Pune wicket was not poor, it was a challenging wicket: Vijay

'As cricketers, we need to play on such wickets sometimes rather than playing on flat tracks. Actually it is a good thing to play on wickets which test your character and technique.'

India's opening batsman Murali Vijay on Wednesday differed with International Cricket Council match referee Chris Board, who gave a poor rating to the Pune wicket, saying the surface at best could be called a 'challenging one'.

The Indian batsmen failed to apply themselves on a rank turner with the hosts losing the series opener by a whopping 333-run margin.

"Pune wicket was not poor. It was a challenging wicket from ball one. As cricketers, we need to play on such wickets sometimes rather than playing on flat tracks. Actually it is a good thing to play on wickets which test your character and technique," he said in Bengaluru.

With the Pune Test ending inside three days and Broad giving a negative feedback on the surface quality, the pitch has become the main talking point leading up to the next Test.

Vijay expects the wicket at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to be a good one but personally he claimed he is not fretting over the nature of the 22-yard strip.

"I go into the middle with an open mind and look to adapt according to the pitch conditions."

Talking about the unexpected surrender in Pune, the batsman said the Indian bowlers did a good job but conceding a big lead with a poor batting display in the first innings cost the team dear.

"I personally thought bowlers did a great job (restricting Australia to 260 in the first innings). After conceding a big first innings lead, it was always going to be difficult. We did not play ourselves well," said the Tamil Nadu right-hander.

Dropped catches, especially of Steven Smith, also hurt India and so did the erratic use of the Decision Review System.

"Definitely, it (DRS usage) is not going our way. We got to take little more time I guess. We got to use those 15 seconds much better."

The team has spoken at length about went wrong in Pune and is looking forward to next game, having got an extra couple of days off, said the India opener.

"We had a chat about it and we have been working on few of the areas where we could have done much better in the last Test match. We are looking forward to starting afresh and take all catches coming our way," he said.
 
He said the trekking trip to the Western Ghats near Pune also helped team move on from the heavy defeat.

"The exercises like these gets you closer as a team. We have been on the road for a while now. So it was good to have a couple of days break, go for a trek and get some fresh air. It was fun," he added.

Image: The groundstaff work on the pitch.

Photograph: BCCI