Pushed into an unfamiliar situation of being 0-1 downin a home series, Australian captain Steve Waugh sought to drawinspiration from India who had scripted a comeback Test series victory two yearsago at home.
Conceding it would be a "big ask" for histeam to come back and win the four-Test series, Waugh said it was not ruled outeither as India had showed after winning the Kolkata Test in 2001.
"It is a big ask. But there is no reason we cannotdo it. It is a challenge but India did exactly so in 2001," said Waugh.
"We are usually not down at home. Now we are. Itwould be a great challenge for us (to come back in the series)."
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The cornered Aussie skipper was ready to take the four-wicket defeat in the secondcricket Test on his chin but regretted the missed chances.
"You are allowed to lose a Test match. We have hada pretty good run. We just needed bit more runs yesterday. It cost us the game.If we had got 30-40 more runs which we should have done, we could have been in aposition to win the game.
"But now we have got to learn (from the mistakes).It is a hard day for us..." And standing in the way of an Australian comebackwould be a resurgent India whose players were described by Waugh as"mentally and physically much stronger now".
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"They showed a lot of character in this match. They are now mentally toughto come back into situations, they have obviously learnt from their last tour.
"Their players are mentally and physicallystronger. You could judge it by the last series in India when they were 1-0 downand came back to win the trophy."
Waugh termed Rahul Dravid's innings as"magnificent" and said he was surprised to see the Indian vice-captainconcentrate for long hours in torturous heat.
"Rahul was magnificent. He has outstandingtechinque and played two magnificent innings. It is very hard to come back after a doublehundred, you have spent so much time in the middle and to do it again it is verydifficult.
"He struggled with his first 20-30 runs today butwhen he settled down he was very difficult to get with his straight battechnique."
Waugh said the 303-run partnership between Dravid andV.V.S.Laxman "won the game for India" and his team will have to find ways tocounter the threat posed by the duo in the remaining two Tests.
"We knew there was going to be some bigpartnership. We just didn't think it was going to be this big. Itwas that great partnership which won the game for India. We need to find a wayto get past that partnership."
Waugh was disappointed with his side's batting in the second innings and saideven 30-40 runs in the second innings could have made the difference.
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"We didn't bat well on the fourth afternoon. Itcost us the game. We wanted to win, we wanted to set up the gamefor today. We were attacking, perhaps we could have pulled it back alittle."
Waugh also found fault with his side's effort in the field butsaid he did not want to take away the credit from India's performance.
"We missed half chances. We took our catches butwe did not take half chances," which Waugh said they should have against a"quality side" like India.
PTI
