Confident of chasing anything: Agar
It's been a productive return to Test cricket for Ashton Agar so far. The left-arm spinner, selected in the Test side after a gap of four years for the first Test against Bangladesh, picked up three wickets in the first innings and contributed with an unbeaten 41 with the bat. The runs came at a crucial time when Australia were reeling at 144 for 8. He added an important 49-run partnership with Pat Cummins which in turn got the visitors close to Bangladesh's 260.
"We're positive. We've had a pretty good fightback today and anything can happen on this wicket. Things happen so quickly when the ball is spinning and turning and as you saw tonight a few of them really jumped, so we're confident that if we get on a bit of a roll tomorrow we can knock them over," Agar said after the second day's play.
The 23-year-old made the most of a stumping miss off his first ball and went on to become the second-highest scorer for Australia in the innings, behind Matt Renshaw's 45. On a surface on which most of the visiting batsmen struggled, Agar faced the most number of deliveries (97) and ensured that Bangladesh picked up just a 43-run first-innings advantage .
"After my first ball, which I had a bit of luck on, I thought I may as well try and make them pay and take some time out of the game. Pretty much watch the ball and make good decisions. Hit mostly with the spin. They bowled quite well to their credit, their spinners were really accurate, it was quite tough out there at times and you just have to wait for a bad ball and something you can capitalize on," he added.
Along expected lines, the pitch has started to show signs of wear and tear, with playing spin already becoming a challenge. 17 of the 21 wickets to fall in the two days have gone to spin with Agar himself adding to his match tally by providing Australia's first breakthrough (Soumya Sarkar) in the second innings.
"It's definitely getting a bit harder. Off the good stuff though, it's not too bad, although it is starting to spin a bit more off the good part of the wicket. It's going to be some pretty tough Test cricket over the next couple of days.
"It's going to get harder and harder to bat on. This is what spinners love, when the ball jumps and spins. You have to remain patient though, they're good players of spin, and they played it pretty well tonight so me, Lyon and Maxwell are going to have to be patient and really accurate tomorrow and hopefully we get our rewards."
The Australians worked hard before the series to reduce the chance of getting LBW. They practiced with only the back pad on and used the bat to protect their front leg and not get beaten on the inside edge. However, four batsmen were trapped LBW by the Bangladeshi spinners - a strange outcome given the visitors' pre-match confidence about that aspect of their game.
"We actually talk a lot about that. We say 'don't get beaten on the inside edge of the bat' because when the ball spins it spins quite a long way. It's not often you're going to get bowled past the outside edge, it's going to spin too far. So if you've covered your inside edge, make sure you don't get hit on the pad, that's when you're pretty safe. That being said it is hard to do," reckoned Agar.
Bangladesh have already garnered a lead of 88 and still have nine wickets in the shed. They also have a well set Tamim Iqbal at the crease. Batting fourth on a deteriorating wicket will not be easy for the Australian batsmen, even though Agar exuded confidence of a strong showing in the second dig.
"I believe that we can chase anything because I think we can bowl them out pretty quickly tomorrow. It's going to be hard, any lead is competitive out there at the moment with the way the wicket's going, but I'm sure our batters will all learn from our first innings."
Source: Cricbuzz
