The much-awaited Test series between India and Australia is all set to get underway on Thursday (February 9) in Nagpur.
Ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, there have been a lot of talks over the pitches that will be served in the four-match series.
While spin-friendly tracks have proved to be a nightmare for the Australian batters in the previous tours, Marnus Labuschagne is excited at the prospect of testing his skills in challenging spin conditions in India.
"The really good batters over generations have been very good at home. But the really great ones have done very well away. There's probably two major challenges for an Australian batter away from home, India and England," he told Cricbuzz.
It is Labuschagne’s first Test tour of India. He has the experience of playing five Tests in the subcontinental conditions so far, having toured Pakistan and Sri Lanka last year.
The No. 1 ranked Test batter had mixed results across the two tours, with the highlight being his century in the Galle Test against Sri Lanka.
"Extreme swing and extreme spin are the major challenges to your batting game. So, for that, I've just wanted this Indian challenge. You play on some spinning wickets here and there, in Australia maybe a little bit of bounce but not as much spin, or bounce and spin, in places like Adelaide and Sydney. But never sheer spin like we faced in Galle against Sri Lanka. That was a nice stepping stone before this series. It's just always been one that you want to test yourself," Labuschagne added.
He also acknowledged the threat posed by veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ahead of the four-Test series.
"We knew Ramesh Mendis the offie, but the threat here will be R Ashwin. Not only does he have a great stock ball, he has great variations, whereas Mendis had a good stock ball, but he didn't probably have the changes like Ashwin. Nor did he have the use of the crease, the angle of the wrist, the seam angles and stuff like that. It probably comes more into your mind here because you know the bowlers.
"So you know Akshar (Patel), (Ravindra) Jadeja and Ashwin, they are the three and maybe Kuldeep (Yadav) will be the add-on. You prepare for them. From a spin perspective, that's always on your mind. I think that's what makes you keep thinking because you're like ok how am I going to attack Ashwin. This is what faced from him before. How am I going to attack Jadeja, this is what he's bowled before," Labuschagne further said.
