With just a couple of days remaining before the first Test between India and Australia gets underway in Nagpur, the preparations are in full swing. Vidarbha Cricket Association is all set for the series opener that is slated to start from February 9 with the Rohit Sharma-led India starting out as favourites.
Despite India’s enviable home record in recent years, not everyone thinks that the hosts are the firm favourites to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy this time around. It’s due to a combination of different things including the red-hot form of the Australian Test team, the apparent struggles of Indian batters against spinners and the fact that a couple of key players will be making their return to international cricket after long injury-forced layoffs.
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Sri Lanka batting legend Mahela Jayawardene thinks that it will be a closely fought 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 told ICC.
He though predicted a 2-1 scoreline in the four-match series in favour of Australia, the world’s current top-ranked Test playing nation.
“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,” he said.
Among the players to watch out for will be the rising star Shubman Gill who has been in excellent form across formats. He struck his maiden Test century during the Bangladesh tour last December and recently became the youngest male player in ODI history to score a double-century.
And then against New Zealand, he scored a maiden T20I century as well.
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“He’s (Gill) 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,” Jayawardene said.
“He is in great form at the moment and if he converts that into red-ball cricket and have that tempo, maturity, 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,” he added.
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