Former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly reckons that the four-match Test series between India and Australia that got underway on Thursday in Adelaide will be won by the team which shows the better application with the bat.
On Thursday, Australia drew the first blood when they blew away India top-order in quick time on Day 1 of the first Test. By 21 overs, KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, captain Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane were back in the dressing room, all falling to loose drives inside 11 overs.
In his column for Times of India, Ganguly said, “Adelaide is not a bad venue for India to start. The wicket is generally helpful to the batsmen. The Indians, though, will not mind a fair bit of grass on the pitch because that will help them to pick 20 wickets. But once again, I feel this series will be decided by who bats better. India will look for contributions from everyone and not just Virat Kohli if they have to succeed in this series. It has to be a contribution that will change the game.”
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Team India is termed as favorites for the series after what has transpired for Australia since that ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. There’s been a lot of hype around the tourists especially Kohli and the pace attack. However, Sourav doesn’t consider the home team being weak in their own conditions.
Explaining his point further, Ganguly said, “I have never believed in favorites tag but I also never consider a host team a weak one in their home conditions. The world, for the last 30 years, has seen some exceptional Australian players. It would be said that other than the eleven playing, there were eleven others who were just as good. Compared to that aura one can arguably say, that from the batting point of view, this Australia side is not the same. However, everyone needs to remember that for all these players, who will be playing, these are home conditions. They have been born and brought up in this environment and will play a lot better than they would in India and England.”
