Former Australia coach John Buchanan believes India’s chances of completing a hat-trick of Test series wins Down Under will hinge on how the visiting batters, including “ageing” stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, tackle the hosts’ battery of pace bowlers. For the first time since 1991-92, India will tour Australia for a five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the opening game scheduled to be played at Perth from November 22.
Buchanan, who presided over Australia’s golden run in all forms in the first decade of this millennium as head coach, said both India and Australia have plenty of ageing players at disposal but that will not be a deterrent to the competition between the sides.
“Australia (has), since losing to India in the last series, the pace bowling attack with (off-spinner Nathan) Lyon, backed up now by Cameron Green or Mitch Marsh, is just a really, really powerful bowling lineup,” Buchanan told PTI on Thursday after the launch of ‘Ready Steady Go Kids’ multi-sport program for the CP Goenka International School.
“India’s top order, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, (Rohit) Sharma himself, (Virat) Kohli, possibly Iyer… they’ve got to bat really well to establish totals and then the likes of (Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, (Mohammed) Siraj will come into their own,” he said.
Buchanan said there won’t be much of a psychological impact of India’s wins in Australia on the previous two tours given that two of the mainstays then — Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane — are not likely to be a part of the touring squad for the upcoming series.
“The previous series that India won — important from both, Indian perspective and an Australian perspective — a little bit of the mind games will go into the pre-series,” he said.
“But for all that, those games have passed, those players are gone and the current players we have both in the Australian side and the Indian side, they’re at a stage of their careers where they all want to perform. I looked at the ages and India has got some aging players in that side notably Rohit who’s 37 and Kohli is 35, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, if he tours, he’s 37 and you look at the Australian side, there’s only one or two players who are under 30.
“It’ll be very much a battle again between the very good pace bowling attacks of both sides and how well the top order players of both sides can deal with the ball that will bounce, seam and probably swing a little bit more in the day-night game in Adelaide,” he said.
Batting for longer periods
Buchanan said it will be key for India to bat for longer periods in Australia and tire out their bowling attack, something that Pujara executed to perfection in 2018-19 facing 1,258 balls. Two years later, Pujara faced 928 balls as India once again won the series 2-1.
“Why Australia plays well at home is they do bat well, they understand their conditions, but that lineup of (Pat) Cummins, (Mitchell) Starc, (Josh) Hazlewood, backed up by Lyon, is just one of the all-time best all-round attacks that world cricket has seen,” he said.
“Albeit that, Starc is (nearly) 35, Hazlewood is 33, and Cummins is 31 — it’s a five-Test series — so if India can not only bat well, but bat for long periods of time, then it will test the physical capacities of that Australian bowling attack and therein potentially lies a little bit of a key to how India can look at winning the series,” he said.
Buchanan said the lack of preparation among travelling teams will be a hinderance that India will face as well.
India will play a two-day pink-ball match against the Prime Minister’s XI on November 30 and December 1 ahead of the day-night Test.
“Australia is favourite going into the series right at this stage. When you look around world cricket these days — and it has been (the case) for some time — it’s very difficult to tour other countries,” he told reporters later.
“(The) travelling teams no longer have that preparation in a country. They don’t play two or three games prior to playing the first Test match to adjust to a country, because nobody wants to tour for that long.
“That makes it very difficult when you go to Perth, when it’s fast and bouncy, for a side that’s coming from, they will have played Bangladesh (and New Zealand) obviously, but Bangladesh at home isn’t it? “The wickets are going to be completely different, albeit it’s fantastic lead-in that they’re playing some Test cricket, but it’s going to be quite difficult to go to Perth to start with,” he said.
Buchanan added that he was also not in favour of Steve Smith continuing as Australia’s opener.
“Not personally. He’s made his mark at No 4. But I’m not a selector, and I’m not the captain, and I’m not Steve Smith and so those three people will end up making the decision that they think best fits the make-up of that side,” he said.
