Melbourne, Dec 28: Australian pacer Ryan Harris Sunday expressed disappointment at his team’s ‘below standard’ fielding but heaped praise on Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli.
Australia dropped three simple catches and had several lapses in their fielding Sunday as the Indian batsmen made good use of the situation.
“We have got pretty high standards with our fielding and that was pretty disappointing the way we fielded today. No one means to drop catches but that was well below standards,” Harris told reporters.
Praising Indian batsmen, Harris said: “If people are saying Test cricket is not that exciting they should be watching this series. Rahane scored 50-odd off 40-odd balls and he played some good shots. Credit goes to the Indian batsmen.”
“They batted pretty well to be able to score that many runs on the day,” said Harris who picked up four wickets on the day.
It was yet another chapter added to the heated exchanges that have become notable in this series. Kohli was aggressive in the press conference later on as well, about a lack of respect from the Australian team, and when told about the same, Harris was speechless for a moment.
“We all respect him,” he said later. “It’s interesting to hear him say that. It’s probably a good thing, because he’s probably worried about that. If he’s worrying about stuff like that, hopefully his batting goes downhill,” he added.
PTI