Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene is hoping for an interesting Test series between India and Australia where he has backed the visitors to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which begins on February 9 in Nagpur as well. However, since 2015, Australia have not been able to win over India in a Test series. For the past eight years, India have had the upperhand in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, winning both at home and away as well.

“I think it’s always going to be a great series. I think Indian conditions and how the Australian batsmen tackle that, they do have a really good bowling unit and how do the Indian batsmen tackle that … it depends on how each team starts the series and who’s got that momentum. But it will be fascinating,” Mahela Jayawardene said in the latest edition of The ICC Review.

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“It’s difficult to predict, but being a Sri Lankan, I’m hoping that Australia can go all the way. Probably a 2-1 win for Australia, but it’s going to be a tough one,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the sublime form of batter Shubman Gill in recent times has boosted India’s chances of successfully managing the strong Australian bowling unit as well. Gill’s outstanding form in white-ball cricket has given India a much-needed boost in the T20 formats, and Jayawardene believes that he can have a similar impact in the longer format too as well.

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“He’s been very good, he’s technically very sound and he’s a good player of pace. That’ll keep him in good stead against that Australian attack, but it’s always going to be tough and it will be a very good series. He is in great form at the moment and if he converts that into red-ball cricket and have that tempo, maturity, understanding of the situations and conditions, he’d be a great asset at the top of the line-up for India. He does give them those good starts at a good tempo to put opposition bowling attacks under pressure,” Mahela Jayawardene concluded.