With less than a week to go to win the first of four Tests at the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, all that is being talked about is the possible XI of India and Australia for the historic pink ball day-night test match in Adelaide.
Both India and Australia have their own headaches and tough decisions to make before the series opens.
Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shared his thoughts ahead of the four-match test series. Sachin warned Virat Kohli’s India of “three major players” on the Australian side.
Sachin said the current Australian team is much “stronger” with leading hitters David Warner and Steve Smith back from the ball handling suspensions that kept them out two years ago. Another Australian batsman that Sachin believes can give even the strong Indian bowling formation a lot of trouble is Marnus Labuschagne.
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“Since the last time Australia played India they have three important players. They have Warner who is back in the team, Smith and (Marnus) Labuschagne, ”Tendulkar told AFP.
“This is a much better team compared to the previous one. When a couple of your upper limbs are not there, you suddenly feel that emptiness and that’s what Australia felt, ”added Tendulkar.
Warner and Smith weren’t part of the Australian team that India beat 2-1 the last time they toured in 2018-19 and neither was Labuschagne, who had yet to debut in testing.
But Tendulkar insisted that the Indian bowling attack led by Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin is also stronger and can challenge Australia.
“Each era should be kept separate, I don’t like to compare,” he said, when asked if this was the strongest attack India has ever produced.
“But I can say that (India) is a complete bowling attack. So no matter what kind of surface you’re playing on, you’ve got all sides covered.
“You have bowlers who can swing the ball. When it comes to variations and discomfort, that’s there too.
“Someone hitting the deck hard is there too. We have a rotating wrist, we have rotating fingers. “
(With AFP tickets)
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