Australia are considered to be pink-ball masters having played as many as seven Day-Night Tests and winning all of them. In comparison, India, before the ongoing Adelaide Test, had played just one pink-ball match.

But after their struggles on Friday, Australia captain Tim Paine, interestingly, talked about difficulties of dealing with the pink ball. He also appreciated the quality of India’s bowling attack when asked about Australia’s defensive approach with the bat.

“Yes, the quality of the fast bowling has been exceptional. The pink ball is probably another factor as these games aren’t that fast scoring.

“It takes time to adjust to the pink ball and it’s not as easy to pick up. It looks good on telly, but I will tell you, it’s been harder for the players,” Paine said during a virtual media conference at the end of the day’s play.

“It’s certainly not our best performance, but credit to India. They bowled really well and put us under pressure. We just could not get any momentum or any partnerships.”

India are 62 ahead at present with nine wickets in hand and Australia know it well enough that they need to restrict the visitors to as low a total as possible in their second innings in order to avoid going down 0-1 in the four-Test series, which is being broadcast on Sony Six and Sony Ten channels.

“We’ve got to chase and we know it’s going to be a challenge as the quality of (India’s) bowling is exceptional,” Paine said. “We know our fast-bowling attack and there is also Nathan Lyon. We’ve got the ability to take quick wickets and obviously we will try and do that, keep the scoreboard under control and, hopefully, we can keep that target as low as possible.”