Sydney, Jan 3: India had a poor opening day to the Sydney Test after winning the toss and opting to bat first. The Indian batsmen, with the exception of Sachin Tendulkar and skipper MS Dhoni, struggled against the Australian pacers who exploited the conditions and scuttled the side for a mere 191 runs. At the end of Day 1, which yielded three wickets to the Indians, coach Duncan Fletcher spoke to the media about his team.

Excerpts:

On the day’s play

I think the Australian bowlers should be given some credit; they bowled some really good lines and lengths today and put us under pressure. We were able to do that first up but [Ricky] Ponting and [Michael] Clarke batted well at the end. It’s crucial that we get those line and lengths on Day 2 […] and put the Australian batters under that same pressure.

On India’s chances in the Test

[…] We might be able to put Australia under a bit of pressure if we bat well in the second innings

On India’s batting

It’s important from our point of we view that they click together. As a unit they haven’t scored consistently. Rahul [Dravid] batted well in England, he has lost a little bit of form here. Sachin [Tendulkar’s] in good nick at the moment. [VVS] Laxman is striking it well and just needs a little bit of good fortune. That middle-order should be able to put in the good scores that we require.

On the atmosphere in the dressing room

The mood in the changing room is very good. They work very hard at the nets, they are putting in the effort, they are trying their best. Sometimes in cricket we need a little bit of good fortune. Like you saw Sachin today – how many times do you play from that width? Normally, it would've been put through the covers for four. Sometimes [fortune] goes with you and sometimes it goes against you.

On the Australian side

From my point of view, you need to give credit to the opposition. Clarke and Ponting came out [and] batted positively. Clarke was very positive but there were a few loose shots upfront there. He looked under a bit of pressure. He could quite easily have nicked one of those early and they could have been four down.

On Gautam Gambhir

We have just been working on him to be more positive. That's what's crucial with Gautam. We are working on the mental side of it where we feel he has been quite tentative and pushing at balls instead of going out there and batting like he should. We have seen Gautam; he is an attacking batter. We are trying to get him to be a lot a more positive in his approach. Today the ball he got, it would have been difficult to leave that, pitching on leg stump, going across you. It probably would have got a few left-handers out that early in an innings.

On India’s bowling unit

They have bowled well, good line and length. Umesh [Yadav] and young Ishant [Sharma], who has been out with an injury [recently], if they get their experience, we are quite confident that they would develop into a useful unit. In Australia we’re hoping that this unit develops into useful unit.