India’s Rishabh Pant said he batted with restraint on the opening day against Australia because character of the SCG pitch and the game situation did not allow him to be his customary aggressive self. Pant, who copped severe criticism from all corners for his callous approach to batting during the previous Test at Melbourne, made a 98-ball 40 in India’s 185 all out here on Friday.

“I think in this innings, I was not in a frame of mind where I wanted to take charge of the game because the wicket was doing too much and the kind of situation we were in,” Pant said. “I would say there might be a 50-50 chance which I could have taken early on in this innings, but sometimes you have to play more secure cricket especially the way, wicket was behaving,” he added.