‘It was just one bad hour’

India's stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane said today the loss in Adelaide was just a case of having a bad hour in a game after two days of domination, ahead of the second Test beginning Saturday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

"In the last Test match, we had two good days, just one bad hour where we actually lost it completely but the chat after that was all about backing ourselves as individuals and as team and play to our strengths and whatever we had planned in the first Test match just stick to that," said Rahane while speaking to the media on Friday.

The 32-year-old, who led India to a win over Australia in the Dharamsala Test of 2017, said that he would back his natural instincts.

"From the 2017 Test, I learnt about backing your instincts as captain and remaining calm under pressure. So, I think my thought is to just back own methods which I ideally focus on. I learnt a lot from it," said Rahane.

Rahane, who was involved in Virat Kohli's run-out after the pair had strung together a strong partnership, said he had said sorry to his skipper.

It was really tough; we were going well at that moment. The partnership was going well and good. I could see the momentum going towards Australia. After the end of day's play, I said sorry to him. He was okay. He understood it… but such things happen in cricket and we have to respect it," said Rahane.

The Indian team had a get-together and a team dinner before Kohli left Adelaide for India. Kohli gave a pep-talk.

"We met Virat before he left Adelaide. We had our team dinner. He spoke to all the boys and said, 'just be yourselves, play your game as a team'. He asked all of us to stay positive, play to our strength and just play as a team and as a unit. That is what we were doing all the year, it is all about that. All about the strength, playing for each other, enjoying each other's success."