XtraTime Web Desk: The absence of some of their biggest players makes the current Australian Test side vulnerable, feels Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar played 20 of his 200 Test matches in Australia, scoring 1809 runs at an average of 53.20 – only marginally below his career average of 53.78 – and hit six centuries. Excellent numbers, but he was part of just two Test match wins – in Adelaide in 2003 and in Perth in 2008.
Indeed, India have only won five Tests in Australia in all these years, two in the 1970s, one in the 1980s, none between 1981 and 2003, and then the two Tendulkar was a part of.
When India travel to Australia later this year, though, it will be ‘possibly our best chance to go out there and beat them’, suggested Tendulkar in an interview with Cricketnext.
A big part of the reason for Tendulkar hoping for a good result from India’s point of view is that the Australians are currently severely lacking in experience in the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner, their two premier batsmen who are both serving ball-tampering bans.
“If you see the Australia teams in the past and compare them to this one, yes we have a very good chance,” said Tendulkar. “I mean playing cricket at the highest level, I don’t think it is at the highest level at this stage. I think they have had better sides in the past. They have had better players with more experience, this is considerably an inexperienced side.
“They are kind of getting back together and forming a solid unit. But Australians are known for being competitive and I won’t be surprised if they put up a competitive fight. To go out there and challenge them is also not going to be easy but we have the ammunition to go out there and challenge them.
“We have good fast bowlers, quality spinners. We have good batters. You win Test matches when you score a lot of runs on the board.”
The other reason for Tendulkar, as well as many other Indians, expecting good things from the Indians is the form of Virat Kohli, their captain. Kohli has been in incredible run-scoring form of late, which is reflected in the MRF Tyres ICC Player Rankings.
Kohli was the standout batsman on India’s recent tour of England, where the Indians lost 4-1 but Kohli topped the scorers’ chart, and his record in Tests in Australia is even better than that of Tendulkar – 992 runs in eight matches at an average of 62 with five centuries.
“I think it is his hunger … his temperament, the ability to assess the situation. Because there is no set formula to that,” said Tendulkar. “Every day you are going to have some different challenges and you have got to have that adaptability and flexibility in your mind to go out and assess and he does that rather well.
“And one good thing is he is hungry forever, that’s how a batsman should be.”
India will travel to Australia in November to play three Twenty20 Internationals, then four Tests and finally three one-day internationals.