The Indian cricket team will travel to Australia for five Test matches in a few days' time. The much-awaited series is slated to get underway on November 22 in Perth.
In their last two tours, India had defied all odds and expectations to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under. With three weeks remaining for the marquee series, cricket experts and former players have started sharing their predictions.
Recently, former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting joined the bandwagon. He backed the hosts to win the BGT 3-1 after the chances of senior India pacer Mohammad Shami making a comeback during the series virtually ended.
Shami was expected to make India return midway through the Australia tour but he reportedly picked up a side strain, which will further delay his return following an ankle surgery and rehab.
Ponting believes taking 20 wickets will be a challenge for India, despite having Jasprit Bumrah in their ranks.
"Shami just leaves such a big hole in that bowling group," Ponting told the ICC website. "Back then (in August) there was still some conjecture whether Shami would be fit or not. Taking 20 wickets in a Test match for India is going to be the biggest challenge. I think they'll bat well enough out here with the current group of batters that they've got."
India's confidence may have also taken a hit from the recent 0-3 whitewash at the hands of New Zealand at home. But Ponting reckons the visitors might win one of the five Tests.
"I think India will win a Test match somewhere through the five Test matches," he predicted. "But I still think now, Australia probably look a bit more settled, a bit more experienced and we know that they're a very hard team to beat at home. So I'll stick with the 3-1 (prediction)."
When asked who could top the run-scoring charts in the series, Ponting mentioned a couple of names -- one from each team.
"Leading run scorer, I'm going to go (with) Steve Smith or Rishabh Pant," he remarked.
Pant’s performance with the bat was one of the very few takeaways for India in an otherwise dismal home series against New Zealand. The wicketkeeper-batter ended on top of the run-scorers' list in the series, amassing 261 runs in six innings at an average of 43.50, including three half-centuries.
The southpaw also returned with 161 runs at 53.66 in the preceding two-Test match series against Bangladesh, marking his return to red-ball internationals with a century.
"With Rishabh back in the side and probably coming into bat in the middle order when the ball's probably lost a bit of its shine and a bit of its hardness and the form that he's in, I'll go for him as one of the leading run-scorers as well," said Ponting.
Commenting on Smith, the Aussie legend said: "I think Smith, the fact that he's moved back down from opener to No. 4 probably makes it feel like he's got more of a point to prove...that maybe he shouldn't have gone up to open in the first place and that No. 4 is his spot and where he should have probably been the whole time."
After the first Test in Perth, the action will shift to Adelaide (December 6-10), where both teams will face each other in a Day-Night Test. The last three Tests are set to take place in Brisbane (December 14-18), Melbourne (December 26-30), and Sydney (January 3-7).
