Sourav Ganguly Confident Of India Doing Well In The Test Series In Australia

Sourav Ganguly, former Indian captain and the current President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, recently gave his views on the upcoming Indian tour of Australia, adding that the tourists’ chances of scripting yet another historic triumph Down Under, will depend on how skipper Virat Kohli uses his pace attack and the manner in which their opening pair fares against a strong Australian pace attack.

Team India will travel to Australia for a full-fledged series consisting of six white-ball internationals [3 ODIs and 3 T20Is] followed by the all-important four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy, post the culmination of the IPL on November 10.

The first Test of the four-match series will be a day-night affair at the Adelaide Oval, starting December 17 followed by traditions Test at the MCG, SCG, and the Gabba, Brisbane.

Indian pace attack outbowled their Australian counterparts during their historic 2018 triumph and Ganguly feels that for the bowling attack to be successful this time around, a lot will depend on how Virat Kohli uses his bowler at different stages of the Test match.

”Yes, it’s quality [Indian pace attack], there’s Navdeep Saini also who has improved enormously, enormously, than what we saw last year. Bowls at a good pace, good length, so India has the attack. It’s about Virat, and I’m saying this as a player, not as a BCCI President, it’s about Virat just working with them and getting them to be at their best. He has to decide as a captain, who he wants to attack with, who he wants to defend with. At which stage of the game he wants to attack with an Ashwin or a Bumrah or a Saini or a Sharma or a Jadeja. It’s his captaincy skill,” Sourav Ganguly told India Today.

The success of the openers key to India’s chances in Australia- Sourav Ganguly

India’s perennial issues on overseas tours over the years has been the inability of their openers to survive the new ball. During the last tour of Australia, India suffered from the lack of form of their first-choice openers in KL Rahul and Murali Vijay in the first two Tests, post which the duo were dropped as India roped in Mayank Agarwal and a make-shift opener in Hanuma Vihari.

The Indian squad consists of opening options in the form of Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, and Shubman Gill, and irrespective of who opens the batting, Sourav Ganguly feels it is paramount for the selected duo to give India good starts and lay the platform for the middle-order.

“So he’s got the attack, he’s got the batting- opening will be very important when you go to England, when you go to Australia, when you go to South Africa, the first 20 overs are very important. You need a Mayank Agarwal or a Rohit Sharma or a Prithvi Shaw. There’s be edges, there’ll be the ball decking around and once the 20 overs pass, it’ll be a different game,” Sourav Ganguly said.

And that’s when Test matches are won or Test matches are lost. That’s why I’ve said that Virender Sehwag is one of the all time greats for Indian cricket because in my generation, he just took the new ball apart with Dravid at 3 and it was a great combination to win Test matches. And I think Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Rohit Sharma probably got to do that for Virat Kohli. We don’t want to see a Virat Kohli or a Rahane at [say] 15/2 with the ball still being new and a Cummins or a Starc or Hazlewood at their best with the new ball,” he added.

India has played five Tests at the Adelaide Oval since the turn of the century, out of which they have won twice- in 2003 and 2018. But, unlike the past occasions, this time the Test will be a pink-ball affair.

“India has won in Adelaide in 2003, in 2018 when they visited; so India has a history of winning in Adelaide. The first Test match starts in Adelaide. So play well and we’ll get on the right side of the series.” he signed off.

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