Captain Virat Kohli on Tuesday firmly backed his decision to play four pacers in the second Test against Australia, rejecting criticism that India erred in not playing a spinner.
"We didn't have that control particularly in the first innings, not to the extent that we wanted. But in the second innings for sure, especially yesterday (day four) the first session, giving away only 56 odd runs without getting a wicket.
"I think it was outstanding bowling and obviously Mohammed Shami did what he did in the next session with the ball, which was again wonderful to see. I think they executed their plans to 95 per cent of what we expected. I think you definitely can be happy with that.
The India skipper added, "In the past when we have played four quicks, we definitely haven't been as consistent as we were in this game. So, I think they were pretty accurate, pretty consistent and we were convinced about going in with four fast bowlers looking at the conditions."
Kohli admitted that playing four fast bowlers weakened the tail and didn't provide as much control over Australia's scoring rate in the first innings. But at the same time, he added that they didn't comprehend picking a spinner at all despite a long tail.
"You obviously have two situations that you can think of. When you pick another fast bowler, obviously R Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja have more ability with the bat, we all know that. It's a very tricky decision to make - what kind of a bowling option you want to go with or you want to think that that guy can contribute with the bat as well.
"So eventually you come to one decision. We backed that decision and went ahead with it. Whether it comes off or not, that's a different thing but we were totally convinced in the team that that was our best combination to go with and the batsmen have to take responsibility.
"There are lots of variables that can happen during the course of a cricket match but before that, you need to have clarity as to what you want to do and as a side, we were totally clear that this was the combination we wanted to go with," he added.