India’s prospects of winning three straight Test series in Australia, according to former Australia coach John Buchanan, would depend on how the visiting batsmen—including “aging” stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma—handle the hosts’ array of quick bowlers.
India will travel to Australia for a five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, beginning on November 22 in Perth. This will be India’s first trip of Australia since 1991–1992.
The fact that both Australia and India have a large pool of senior players at their disposal does not, according to Buchanan, who oversaw Australia’s historic run in all competitions during the first ten years of this millennium as head coach, prevent the two teams from competing.
“Australia has, since losing to India in the last series, the pace bowling attack with off-spinner Nathan Lyon, backed up now by Cameron Green or Mitch Marsh, is just a really, really powerful bowling lineup,” Buchanan told PTI on Thursday after the launch of ‘Ready Steady Go Kids’ multi-sport program for the CP Goenka International School.
“India’s top order, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma himself, Virat Kohli, possibly Iyer… they’ve got to bat really well to establish totals and then the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj will come into their own,” he said.
Given that two of the key players from those tours, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, are unlikely to be included in the touring team for the forthcoming series, Buchanan predicted that the psychological effects of India’s victories in Australia on the preceding two tours would be minimal.
“The previous series that India won — important from both, Indian perspective and an Australian perspective — a little bit of the mind games will go into the pre-series,” he stated.
“But for all that, those games have passed, those players are gone and the current players we have both in the Australian side and the Indian side, they’re at a stage of their careers where they all want to perform.”
“I looked at the ages and India has got some aging players in that side notably Rohit who’s 37 and Kohli is 35, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, if he tours, he’s 37 and you look at the Australian side, there’s only one or two players who are under 30.
“It’ll be very much a battle again between the very good pace bowling attacks of both sides and how well the top order players of both sides can deal with the ball that will bounce, seam and probably swing a little bit more in the day-night game in Adelaide,” he said.
According to Buchanan, it will be crucial for India to bat for extended stretches of time in Australia in order to exhaust their bowling attack—something Pujara did brilliantly in 2018–19 while facing 1,258 deliveries. Pujara faced 928 balls two years later as India won the series 2-1 once more.
“Why Australia plays well at home is they do bat well, they understand their conditions, but that lineup of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, backed up by Lyon, is just one of the all-time best all-round attacks that world cricket has seen,” he stated.
“Albeit that, Starc is nearly 35, Hazlewood is 33, and Cummins is 31 — it’s a five-Test series — so if India can not only bat well, but bat for long periods of time, then it will test the physical capacities of that Australian bowling attack and therein potentially lies a little bit of a key to how India can look at winning the series,” he said.
India will also encounter difficulties due to traveling teams’ lack of preparation, according to Buchanan.
Prior to the day-night Test, India will play a two-day pink-ball encounter on November 30 and December 1 against the Prime Minister’s XI.
At this point in the series, Australia is the clear favourite. It’s quite difficult to travel other nations when you look around international cricket these days, and that has been the case for a while, he later told reporters.
“The travelling teams no longer have that preparation in a country. They don’t play two or three games prior to playing the first Test match to adjust to a country, because nobody wants to tour for that long.
“That makes it very difficult when you go to Perth, when it’s fast and bouncy, for a side that’s coming from, they will have played Bangladesh and New Zealand obviously, but Bangladesh at home isn’t it?
“The wickets are going to be completely different, albeit it’s fantastic lead-in that they’re playing some Test cricket, but it’s going to be quite difficult to go to Perth to start with,” he stated.
Additionally, Buchanan stated that he did not support Steve Smith remaining as Australia’s opener.
Not in a personal way. At No. 4, he has left his imprint. However, I’m not the captain, I’m not a selector, and I’m not Steve Smith, so those three individuals will ultimately decide which choice best suits that team’s composition,” he stated.
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