India is comfortably the No.1 ranked test side in the world. That is a fact. In other words, a falsehood. Especially when India know that if they can repeat what they did against England, a similar series result against Australia is not really a fantasy. We are not treating the series as too different from what we have done in the past. India have not lost a Test – any Test, anywhere – since August 2015.
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India’s batsmen helped lay the platform for the series victory at home to England late past year, with captain Virat Kohli in superb touch with 655 runs at a staggering average of 109.16. At home they are utterly dominant.
India are unbeaten in 19 tests over a 18-month period with South Africa, New Zealand, England and Bangladesh all vanquished at home, while trips to Sri Lanka and West Indies also culminated in victories. In fact, they have been going through this drill from the time they toured the West Indies in July-August a year ago.
Lehmann has previously outlined his vision for the toss to be eliminated from Test cricket, proposing the visiting side be given the option of batting or bowling. If they were a cat, they’d be out of lives, and out of their misery.
SYDNEY Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella was suspended for two ODI matches after he was punished for dissent during last week’s pulsating Twenty20 win over Australia.
However, apart from under Ganguly, India have mostly been sitting ducks in overseas tours. We are about to find out. It seemed India had chose to play their home Tests on rank turners, giving their spinners an edge, and winning all 13 was not really a fantasy.
However, despite its tag of underdogs, Australia – considered to be the most in-your-face team across sporting arenas, not just cricket – is not expected to hold itself back when it comes to sledging Indians.
Both men have continued to score heavily since being made skipper and Kohli – who has scored four double centuries since July – heaped praise on Smith. India only gained momentum, not just winning but annihilating Australia in the process. It is different bowling here and bowling there (in Australia). When the ball is shifting, he is one of the bets going around. “So that’s a great starting point for a fast bowling spearhead in the sub-continent conditions, where the wickets aren’t quick and you can’t bounce guys out”. Expect this pair to once again be at the top of the wicket tally. As such, this is where the Australian captain must find a balance, whilst looking to play three pacers. “We understand exactly how the wicket is going to play”.
India: KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.
Aside from Marsh, Maxwell is the only other batting all-rounder in Australia’s Test squad and he is hampered by terrible stats against spin in Asia.
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AUSTRALIA SQUAD: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O’Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade (wk). This would indeed have boosted their confidence ahead of the Pune Test. They have enough inspiration for the best of Aussie pace bowlers from Ray Lindwall to Mitch Johnson have performed admirably in India.
