Australia vs India 2018: Indian Bowlers Will Find it Tough in Test Series - Wasim Akram

Former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram believes Indian bowlers will have their work cut on the Australian pitches. The Adelaide and Melbourne tracks don’t provide extra bounce as they used to do. In fact, the Australian conditions are conducive for batting after the first 20 overs. Furthermore, there isn’t much swing with the Kookaburra ball.

Thus, the former swing master believes it is crucial for a bowler to have pace under his belt if he wants to savour success in the Australian conditions. Meanwhile, the Indian bowlers have done well in the recent past. They were able to scalp all the sixty wickets on the South African tour. Moreover, they were right on the money on the England tour. However, their batting had let them down on both of these aforementioned series.

“I think the Indian bowlers will have it tough. To start off, there are a couple of drop-in pitches in Adelaide, Melbourne, they are not bouncy tracks any more. Brisbane will have a little bit of bounce. I think at Perth they are playing in a new stadium, I don’t know what sort of pitch they have over there. I think whenever India, Pakistan or teams from the sub-continent tour in Australia, the batsmen also struggle but now with the batting tracks, Indian batting is very consistent,” Wasim Akram said while talking to NDTV.

Meanwhile, Wasim Akram said he has even seen James Anderson struggle in Australia as England premier pacer bowls around the 130-135 mark. Thus, it is crucial for bowlers to bowl above 140 km/h.

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“I have seen in Australia even (James) Anderson struggles, if you have 130-135 pace, the ball doesn’t swing. The SG balls swing and then they reverse swing, Duke swings in England all day long. But in Australia, if you don’t have pace, you probably will struggle. However, you never know. It’s a new Australian side. It’s not the same Australian side we have seen in the last 30 years… it’s new… they are under pressure, they just got hammered by Pakistan here in the UAE, and they got hammered by South Africa in Australia, so India definitely have an edge there”.

On the other hand, MS Dhoni isn’t in the best of forms. However, Wasim Akram wants to see the World Cup winning captain play in the World Cup.

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“Yeah, I would love to see MS Dhoni play the 2019 World Cup because you need experience there. On those England pitches with two new balls, the Kookaburra doesn’t swing as much but still, you need experience”.

Indian bowlers have shown an upward swing in their improvement graph. Thus, they would like to deliver the goods in the forthcoming Test series against Australia. The first Test match will take place at Adelaide from December 6.