NEW DELHI, Nov 22: Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson defended his team’s decision to bat first in the opening Test against India on Thursday, saying the toss could prove vital in deciding the match.

“In modern day cricket, most matches are decided on toss. Given the history of the Ferozshah Kotla, we don’t want to face the situation where our batsmen go in there in the fourth innings of the game,” he said.

Talking to reporters at the end of the first day, Lawson admitted that the reason for Pakistan’s batting collapse was due to successive limited-overs tournaments played by his team in the recent months.

“The boys have been in the one-day cricket mode for a while now. And when you play Test matches, it’s pretty difficult to shift the tempo,” the former Australian fast bowler said. “Although the conditions at the start were in favour of the bowlers, our batsmen also didn’t apply themselves the way they should have.”

Lawson, however, lauded the batting of Misbah-ul-Haq and Mohammad Sami for taking Pakistan out of woods. “The other batsmen should learn from these two. Misbah was superb but Sami also showed great character by hanging in there and helped Misbah in lifting the team from precarious spot to a position of some comfort,” he remarked.

Saurav Ganguly, meanwhile, applauded Anil Kumble’s first day as India’s 30th Test captain and said the 37-year-old veteran led from the front at Feroz Shah Kotla.”Anil was simply outstanding on his first day at the office. I knew long ago that he had the ability to be a good captain,” he said before jokingly adding: “Most importantly he made me bowl 12 overs! Because bowling is one area I find myself under no pressure.”

Ganguly, who along with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid is of the three former Indian skippers playing in this Test, praised the bowlers.

“Everyone bowled well to take those eight wickets because the Kotla pitch doesn’t assist much. There was some moisture on the pitch which may not be there in the next few days. As you may have noticed it got better to bat after tea today,” he pointed out. “But if we let them get to 300 tomorrow we would have put in a really bad effort. Overall, we have to maintain our discipline over the next four days to win here.”