The cricket fraternity of the world has been eyeing the upcoming four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy Test series, starting on February 9 in Nagpur. Former legendary batter Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka feels that Australia has a fair chance to beat India on its home soil.
In fact, Australia and India are currently occupying the No. 1 and 2 positions, respectively, in Test teams’ rankings as well as in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship 2023 cycle. Therefore, a hot contest is expected to take place between the two top teams.
India has been holding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since it defeated Australia in its backyard in 2020–21. Interestingly, Australia has failed to clinch Test series in India since 2004.
Jayawardene believes the Pat Cummins-led side has a chance to break the jinx because they have a decent bowling attack to create trouble for the home side.
The Sri Lankan greats went on to say that it is not without danger to predict the series result, but being a Sri Lankan, I hope that Australia should go all the way. The series is likely to go 2-1 in favour of the visitors, but winning a Test series on turning Indian pitches is a difficult task, he added.
He also stated that India’s chances of scoring a massive total against the Australian pace and spin duo in the upcoming series have improved due to the recent form of young batter Shubman Gill.
Jayawardene believes that Gill can make the same impression in red-ball cricket as he did in ODI recently. He has a sound technique to tackle fast bowling.
Currently, Gill is in tremendous touch, but he has to show the same ability in the longest format of the game, and he needs to show tempo, maturity, and play as per the situation of the match. “He is an asset to his team and can help them get off to a good start while putting pressure on the opposing bowlers,” he added.