Bangalore: Indian skipper Anil Kumble Monday minced no words in saying that his team could have chased 299 runs and won the first Test here if openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had given India a rousing start.

"We would have definitely chased the target if Viru and Gambhir had given us a good start," Kumble said.

"After we fought back through Zaheer (Khan) and Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) we were confident of finishing the match on a high note. If we had got a start like we did in the first innings, we could have gone for the target. But unfortunately we did not get it, and we had to settle for a draw," he added.

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Kumble said toss also played a vital role. "I think the toss also played an important role and if I had won the toss probably things would have been different, and we could have been in a much better position on the fifth day."

About the Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch, Kumble said, "The Bangalore pitch has changed with people fiddling with it in the past eight years or so, but again as I said before, winning the toss could have made a difference."

Asked as why the middle order was not coming up to the mark, particularly VVS Laxman, Kumble quickly retorted, saying it was unfair to judge a player on a single performance.