India vs Australia Test series: Former Sri Lanka captain and veteran batsman Mahela Jayawardene expects India and Australia test series will an exciting series. The Sri Lankan legend made a prediction for the next Test series between India and Australia using the most recent edition of The ICC Review.
The former captain of Sri Lanka said as much to host Sanjana Ganesan on the recent episode of The ICC Review. Mahela predicted an incredibly entertaining series between the two teams and also backed Pat Cummins’ team to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which gets underway on February 9 in Nagpur.
India vs. Australia has always been a highly anticipated and closely watched test series where both teams appear to be equally strong but the numbers tell a different story all along. Australia hasn’t been able to show off their superiority over India in a Test series since 2011. In the last 12 years, India and Australia have played six test series (Border Gavaskar trophy), with India winning four of them. Australia’s last trip to India was back in 2017. India was hammered in the first Test at Pune, yet Aussis still lost the series 2-1. The Australians were a deadly foe back then.
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India have claimed victories in both home and away contests in the last three series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy, but Jayawardene has a different opinion. Since Australia haven’t won a Test series in India since 2004, Jayawardena predicts Pat Cummins’ team will lift the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this year.
Jayawardene on India vs Australia test series
“I think it’s always going to be a great series. I think Indian conditions and how the Australian batsmen tackle that, they do have a really good bowling unit and how do the Indian batsmen tackle that … it depends on how each team starts the series and who’s got that momentum. But it will be fascinating,” Jayawardene said in ICC Review.
“It’s difficult to predict, but being a Sri Lankan, I’m hoping that Australia can go all the way. Probably a 2-1 win for Australia, but it’s going to be a tough one.”
Australia and India are now in first and second place on the MRF Tyres ICC Men’s Test Rankings, as well as in the top two places on the ICC World Test Championship standings, and they are in a strong position to go to the final in June.
Making a remark on Shubman Gill, Jayawardene said “He’s been very good, he’s technically very sound and he’s a good player of pace. That’ll keep him in good stead against that Australian attack, but it’s always going to be tough and it will be a very good series. He is in great form at the moment and if he converts that into red-ball cricket and has that tempo, maturity, and understanding of the situations and conditions, he’d be a great asset at the top of the line-up for India. He does give them those good starts at a good tempo to put opposition bowling attacks under pressure.”
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