Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne believes that the Test series whitewash against New Zealand at home would have caused a “little bit of damage” to India’s confidence ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar series.
The series whitewash saw the Men in Blue lose their first Test series on home soil in 12 years. Labuschagne believes that the loss against the Black Caps must have dented the Indian team’s confidence.
“It’s really hard to judge. They played in completely different conditions – spinning conditions, but having India come here off the back of a loss at home is something that’s never happened before (in my career),” Labuschagne said.
“I think that is a good thing in terms of… they are probably a little bit lower on confidence, not coming off a Test victory, losing to New Zealand 3-0. I think that’s going to do a little bit of damage to their confidence,” Labuschagne added.
However, the batter also insisted that Australia, who have lost the last 4 Test series against India, will have to guard against complacency.
“They’re a quality line-up and they’re one of the best teams in the world. So you can never underestimate a team like that,” Labuschagne said.
