By IANS,
Mohali : Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee has shot back at Zaheer Khan’s remarks on the defensive approach of the visitors, saying the Aussies were the only team trying to win the first Test in Bangalore.
Zaheer, who was adjudged man of the match in the first Test, termed the visitors as the “most defensive Aussie team” to visit India in recent time.
“He’s entitled to his opinion. You’ve only got to look back the way we bowled on the last day and the way they attacked the batting,” Lee said Wednesday.
“Chasing 299 in 83 overs, there was only one team that was trying to win the match. We know, at any opportunity, that we are capable of winning — it didn’t appear that they wanted to win.
“There’s a lot of things they can say, that they had a mental win, but we were very happy with the way we played,” he said.
Lee also countered Zaheer’s attack on Australian pace attack’s inability to pick 20 wickets saying it was the pitch which was the real culprit.
“The way we look at it too is that they did not take our 20 wickets, which plays the fact that maybe the wicket was not capable of taking those 40 wickets, so I am not worried about that.
“The wicket was not capable of getting the ball above shoulder height, so the whole scare tactic, the intimidation, wasn’t playing a part because the wicket was so dead.
“Probably (we learned) to be a bit more patient, as a whole bowling group we probably weren’t patient enough.”
Lee said that they will have to bowl with more patience.
“We have to make sure we have better plans. Sometimes the tail wags, it wagged when we were batting as well.
“Harbhajan can hold the bat, so can Zaheer, we know we’re not bowling to traditional nine or 10 batsmen,” Lee said.
Asked about Tendulkar coming close to become the highest scorer in Test cricket, Lee said: “He was a world-class player and deserved to reach the number one spot by scoring the maximum runs in Test cricket.
“He is a world class player. I love to play against the Little Master. He deserves to reach the number one spot.”
Tendulkar is 15 runs short of Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 runs to become the highest run getter in Test matches in cricket. His tally stands at 11,939 runs.
Lee said that the Australian side was looking to competitive cricket in the coming three test matches.
“I don’t want to make a big statement (on Australia winning the series). There are three more games left in the series. I was disappointed that the Bangalore test did not produce a result,” Lee said.