India will have to ‘fight hard’ and ‘buckle up’ if it wants to win a second series of consecutive tests in Australia when they tour Down Under later this month, believes BCCI President Sourav Ganguly. The test series will begin on December 17 with the first match to take place under the lights: the first day-night test between India and Australia. India, on their last tour, recorded their first test series victory in Australia in 2018-19, but Virat Kohli’s men will face a tougher challenge with the return of David Warner and Steve Smith.
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India has traditionally struggled in the SENA nations (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia), having lost its last test tours in England (1-4), South Africa (1-2) and New Zealand (0-2) . Ganguly feels that India’s success rate comes down to the performance of its hitters. Against New Zealand and South Africa, the Indian bowlers were on the mark, but since the hitting didn’t fit, the team struggled to win the series.
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“He (Virat) must sit down and understand that he has to play better away from home. Yes, Australia was a good series that they won (in 2018-19) but they should have done better in South Africa, England (in both 2018) and New Zealand (2020), ”Ganguly said on India Today’s ‘Inspiration’ show.
“They are a capable team and they must have learned from that. Everyone has to hit well. We lost in England because nobody got hundreds of test matches apart from Virat Kohli, Pujara and Pant ”.
To develop his point, Ganguly presented the example of the 2018/19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India won 2-1. Cheteshwar Pujara was India’s leading scorer with more than 500 runs in the series, while Kohli had also taken off a century. Even Rishabh Pant had been resplendent for a century and Mayank Agarwal, making her debut in India, had a memorable first test at the MCG. Ganguly acknowledges that India’s hitters will face a tough challenge as Australia’s pacemakers are at the top of their game.
“We won in Australia because Pujara got you 500 races, Virat got one hundred, Pant got one hundred. This is how you are going to win the series. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, and Lyon are good bowlers. They need to fight hard and buckle up. This is a good team and everyone has to come together to beat Australia in Australia, ”added the former India captain.
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