Veteran Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood is keen to beat Team India in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time since the 2014-15 series. However, Australia won the opening Test by eight wickets in the 2020-21 series but lost 1-2 eventually. He also warned that India can beat any team with their batting and bowling depths.
Josh Hazlewood said (via ESPNcricinfo): “There are quite a few players who have never beaten India in a Test series. It’s quite astounding to say that. That’s one we need to tick off, definitely, in particular at home – we should pretty much win every series here at home. That last series we obviously bowled them out for 36 in Adelaide and we thought here we go, [we are] back at home [and] confident on these grounds. People say we played India B in that last Test, but they can sometimes be stronger than the best team. They’ve got unbelievable depth in all formats and we are starting to see that now.”
However, Hazlewood claimed 13 and 17 wickets in his four Tests in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India as well. However, Australia lost both series by 2-1 margins. And, Hazlewood also opined on the importance of the Test series as Australia are second in the World Test Championship points table.
“It’s always in the background, we have the table up [to see] where we are sitting and what we need to tick off. For me, it’s a big one because I didn’t get to play the last one in England so that’s a burning one for me,” he said.
Nathan Lyon, meanwhile, has also warned Australia about India’s opener Yashasvi Jaiswal before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The veteran off-spinner reminded Jaiswal’s carnage in the Test series against England earlier this year as well. He also opened up about his conversation
with England spinner Tom Harley on how to handle the left-handed batter.
“I haven’t come across him [Jaiswal] yet, but that will be a massive challenge for all us bowlers. The way he played against England, I watched that quite closely and thought that was quite amazing. I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways he went about it to different guys which I found quite interesting,” Lyon told ESPNcricinfo. “I love talking about cricket, so if I can talk to someone who has played Test cricket I might be able to pick up something I’m not aware of. There’s so much knowledge floating around this game that we can always tap into.”
