Australia vs India 2018: Australia has Strong Side Despite No Warner, Smith - Adam Gilchrist

Former wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist believes Australia has a strong side despite the absence of Steven Smith and David Warner. Smith was the leading run-scorer in the previous series against India in 2014. David Warner was also a consistent performer for the Australian side. Meanwhile, both of them are not going to be part of the Australian team due to their ball tampering bans.

In fact, the absence of both Warner and Smith has had a deep impact on Australian cricket. Their performances have taken a downward slope and it has been palpable in their recent result. Australia has lost 16 of their last 18 One Day Internationals and their poor form has been a cause of concern.

“On paper, with or without Steve Smith and David Warner in one-day cricket, we have got a world-class line-up that should be able to compete with all the other teams in the world,” Gilchrist said.

SHORTS

View More

Your daily dose of cricket!

Loading...

Meanwhile, Australia is currently taking on South Africa in the three-match ODI series. They were bundled out for a paltry score of 152 in the first match. Thus, Australia needs to pull up their socks.

Gilchrist said Australia has a talented pool of players who can compete at the topmost level of the game.

“Don’t waste a crisis. There’s plenty of positive opportunity to come out of this,” Gilchrist said. “There’s certainly a talent pool of cricketers in this country that is good enough to compete on the international stage”.

“With the talent pool we have, the infrastructure we have, the learnings from the fallout of this disastrous seven or eight months … the opportunity is there now for it to progress.

“I don’t see any reason why it needs to bottom out any further. I think it starts building from now.”

Australia will like to rebuild their game as they are low on confidence. There must be some dropped shoulders in the dressing room and they need to come up with consistent performances to get back on track.