Australia Will Blow India Away In The Boxing Day Test: Shane Warne

Former Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne feels that Team India are too shell-shocked to stage a recovery in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy post their soul-crushing defeat in the Adelaide Test, adding that the Tim Paine-led Australians will blow them away in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

After having dominated the better part of the first six sessions of the pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Test, India squandered all the advantage in a stunning manner as their batsmen failed to counter what was a masterclass in seam bowling by the duo of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

The second Test will take place at the MCG where India will be without their superstar captain Virat Kohli, who has returned home in order to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, and star pacer Mohammed Shami, who suffered a fracture in his bowling hand during that fateful second innings.

Warne did concede that India has enough quality in their rank but reckoned that the loss of Virat Kohli and especially Mohammed Shami, who he feels could have been real handy on the drop-in pitch of Melbourne is a bit too much for the visitors to recover from.

“I think Australia is probably going to blow them away. Having said that, they have some class players to come in like KL Rahul. Young Gill will come in. (Ajinkya) Rahane is a class act. We know what (Cheteshwar) Pujara can do,” Shane Warne told Fox Cricket.

“(Mohammed) Shami is a huge loss as well. He’s such a quality bowler. And if you look at bowlers for the Melbourne conditions, drop in pitches, Shami hits the seam and stands it up and bowls a good length and straight.” he added.

The Indian batting-unit have been criticized heavily by both fans as well as pundits following their performance in the second innings but Shane Warne feels that more than having a go at the visitors, credit should be given to the Australian seamers, who produced a masterclass in seam-bowling on the third afternoon in Adelaide. Warne heaped high praise on the Australian bowling group, adding that it was ‘fantastic’ to watch them go about their business in the first Test.

“Yeah, you can have a go at the Indians but I think you would rather give credit to the Australians and how well they bowled,” Warne said.

“They were outstanding, that bowling attack. The four bowlers plus Green, they have been good bowlers for a long time. They are turning themselves into great bowlers now. To watch them go to work in Adelaide was fantastic.” he added.

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