There has been some backlash directed towards the Indian cricket team batters after they lost all the three Tests in the recently held series against New Zealand. Most of India’s batsmen found it difficult against the spinners and even the best of them all Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli did not escape the ire of the fans and the pundits. In the opinion of the former great Indian cricketer Kapil Dev, the only mantra for the improvement for the batters is to keep on playing and practicing all the time and therefore he asked them to ‘go back to the basics.’
“Go back to the basics. Practice and practice and practice. If you say I will improve by sitting in the room, then it is not going to happen. If you are going through a rough time, just practice more. The more you practice, the better it will be for you,” Kapil told CricketNext.
On the other hand, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting is of the opinion that Australia will win the Border Gavaskar Trophy against India by three matches to one as the touring team will find it “the biggest challenge” of the test series- getting twenty wickets in a test match without Mohammed Shami on their side.
Australia are determined to put an end to the dismal record in the Border-Gavaskar in which India has emerged the winner in each of the four series since 2014-15 with historic series wins in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Nevertheless, after India recorded its first ever whitewash by losing 0-3 to New Zealand, one of the series losses that shocked most cricket fans, Ponting is confident that the home team stands better chances of beating India.
“Probably more so now (than before),” Ponting said about the odds in favor of winning Australia on the ICC Review Show.
Injuries forced Shami to go on the sidelines since the last November and in the opinion of Ponting, the Indian bowling attack of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana, who has not played a single game in the senior team, will miss Shami very much.
Ponting remarked, “Shami simply makes such an otherwise effective bowling unit look incomplete. Even then (August), there was doubt as to whether he would be fit enough.” “For me the hardest thing about the Test match – and it is for me too even personally – is taking 20 wickets. I mean I don’t doubt that they will bat well enough in this country with the current bunch of batters they have.” Um Ponting, which placed Australia as the better settled team ‘crhe boosted both teams and rated India over Stephen Card erai, where the Test series is set for November 22 in Perth. ‘I think There will be a Test match victory for India at some point within the five Test matches,’ predicted Ponting.
“When we analyze the team composition of both teams, we’ve also been able to hear the predictions on settled to expect 3 -1 in favor of Australia. I think if these two teams square up in a couple of months from now, my guess is rather a lot more settled and experienced – Australia is hard to beat at home. So I will stick with the 3-1.”
