Australia Will Fight Back But India Have The Upper Hand: Karsan Ghavri

Former India pacer Karsan Ghavri feels Australia will fight back in the remaining matches of the Border-Gavaskar series. At the same time, he insisted that India will have the upper hand.

Australia sprung a big surprise by coming up with a fine show in Adelaide that nearly saw them upset India. Not many had given the hosts a chance of competing well with the visitors in the absence of their batting stalwarts David Warner and Steve Smith. However, the team from Down Under refused to buckle under pressure and came up with a fine show. They had India on the back-foot for several occasions but the visitors eventually showed why they have been the number one Test side for more than two years now.

Chasing 322, Australia looked well out of contention after being reduced to 187 for 7 and losing all their recognised batsmen. However, their lower-order came up with a fine effort to give India a mighty scare. At one point it looked like Australia would pull off a sensational win. But eventually the hurdle proved to be too big for them as India won the game by 31 runs.

And Karsan Ghavri is expecting Australia to give India further fights on the field. He, however, made it clear that India will the upper hand in the face-off.

“We are up 1-0 in Australia right now and there are three more Tests to go. But I will not be surprised (if) there will be a big fight on the field from the Australian team.

“They (Australia) will fight back. But I can tell you we (India) have an upper hand. We have an advantage of being a great team,” the former left-arm pacer said.

Ghavri further lavished praise on Cheteshwar Pujara who played two brilliant knocks to make a big mark in the game. He scored 123 and 71 as India registered their first Test win in Australia since 2008.

“Cheteshwar Pujara is the wall (of Indian cricket) after Rahul Dravid. He is the Indian wall like the China Wall,” said Ghavri.

“His (Pujara’s) wicket is a very prized wicket one in Test cricket. Like when Rahul Dravid used to play, his wicket was a prized wicket (for the opposition). Today Indian cricket can depend on him (Pujara) and as long as he delivers the goods, it’s great for Indian cricket,” said the 67-year-old Ghavri.

India, meanwhile, will be looking to take an unassailable 2-0 lead when they take on Australia in the second Test starting December 14 in Perth.