Australian cricket team is all set to tour India for the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, scheduled to begin in Nagpur on February 09. The four-match Test leg will be extremely vital for both sides in order to confirm their places in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Notably, under the leadership of Pat Cummins, the Aussies have continued their domination down under and done wonders in the subcontinent as well. However, playing in India has always been quite challenging for the Aussies, as they have a terrible record here. They last won a Test match on Indian soil back in 2017, when spin played a major role in their victory. Left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe was the Player of the Match after picking 12 wickets.
Australia have ace spinner Nathan Lyon for the upcoming series, but it won’t be an easy job for him. Meanwhile, former Aussie skipper Michael Clarke has opined that the Australian team is not well-prepared for the upcoming Tests and should have decided to play a practice match, which would have helped them get familiar with the Indian conditions. Clarke reckoned that playing the limited overs fixtures in India is completely different from Test matches.
“That’s the part I don’t understand—the no-tour game before the first Test in India. I hope I’m proven wrong, but I think that is going to be significant. Batting in those conditions in one-day cricket and T20 cricket is one thing, batting in Indian conditions in Test cricket it is a completely different game,” said Clarke, as quoted by Big Sports Breakfast on Tuesday.
Clarke observed that Australia would need a completely different plan in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as both reverse swing and spin are going to be a huge factor in India.
“You need a completely different plan to what you have playing in Australia, the way you start your innings against spin bowling, the way you play reverse swing, through the Australian summer we didn’t see any reverse swing, the games were over in two, three days. So reverse swing is going to play a big part (in India), all these batters that walk out and play bowlers bowling 130-140ks – there’s every chance India is going to play at least two spinners, so it’s a completely different game,” Clarke added.
