Winning a Test series on Indian soil remains one of the toughest challenges for the Australian cricket team. Over the years, they have struggled in the spin-friendly Indian conditions.
Notably, Australia have not won a Test series in India since 2004. Prior to that, they won a Test series on Indian soil way back in 1969.
Despite the poor track record, former South Africa batter JP Duminy expects the Pat Cummins-led Australian side to clinch the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a 2-1 margin.
“I see it as a very close series, but I genuinely think that Australia stand a good chance. They certainly have been the team to beat,” Duminy said during a virtual interaction, facilitated by SA T20, where he coaches Paarl Royals team.
“I feel it would be 2-1 to Australia and for me the Player-of-The-Series would be Usman Khawaja,” he added.
Duminy was quick to mention that one can never “write off” India in their home conditions.
“You think about (Ravichandran) Ashwin who has a prolific Test record in India, he’s probably going to be the key for them.”
“When it comes to Test cricket, you have got to utilise your resources. Guys like (Cheteshwar) Pujara, Virat Kohli who are prolific in Test cricket. They churn out runs after runs. It’s an opportunity for those guys to step up.
Suryakumar Yadav, who has been in sensational form in the shortest format of the game, is a part of India’s squad for the first two Tests against Australia.
“Probably he’s one of the most exciting players for India right now. From the way Test cricket is going, as a country you need to decide what is the line of cricket you would be playing. And if it’s of the attacking mindset, then he becomes an option, certainly,” Duminy said about Suryakumar.
There has already been a debate about whether India should prepare rank-turners for the upcoming four-Test series. Duminy feels it’s absolutely fair to exploit your home advantage.
“That’s the beauty of having a home series. You have the opportunity to play to your advantage. Why would you not. It would be silly to think that you would not want to utilise that (rank-turners) in your favour.
“I certainly see that will be the case in the series. Whenever you travel to the Sub-continent that’s always something you face. You need to be able to prepare for that. If you want to be the best in the world, you have to be able to perform in all conditions,” he remarked.
The highly-anticipated Test series between India and Australia is slated to get underway on February 9 in Nagpur. Delhi will host the second Test from February 17 while Dharamshala and Ahmedabad will stage the third and fourth Tests from March 1 and March 9, respectively.
(With PTI Inputs)
