Former Australian skipper Steve Waugh is “not sure” if the current Indian team under the leadership of Virat Kohli is any better than some of the squads that he played against during his playing days. Speaking about the reference to the Indian coach Shastri’s comments that this is “the best Indian side in the last 15 years”.
During a recent chat with ESPNCricinfo, Waugh said, “Look, I have played against some great Indian sides and I am not sure that the current side is better than the ones we played against.”
While the Australian legend understood that Shastri wanted to boost the morale of his team, he felt that sweeping comments could have been avoided.
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Waugh further added, “I am not really sure but probably not a great thing to say as it puts extra pressure on the team. Once they start losing, they will get a lot of criticism for that. Look, it’s good that Ravi Shastri believes in his side but comments like these could be kept to himself.”
Despite the fact that the Australian hasn’t been doing well in international cricket in recent times, Waugh feels that the Kangaroos would be hard to beat in their own den.
Steve Waugh explained, “Australia will be hard to beat in Australia. We have a bowling attack as good as any team in world cricket and we can take wickets. It’s our batting. If we score 350 runs in the first innings, I think we will be very hard to beat. And someone will always come and do well and that’s the nature of the sport. I am still pretty confident that we can win in Australia but it’s going to be a close series though.”
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Like everyone else, Waugh praised Virat Kohli for his supreme consistency comparing him with Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar.
The legendary cricketer said, “He is a great player and he loves these big moments. He is like Tendulkar and Lara. They wait for these and that’s where they want to show their best. He will be the danger man straightaway but they have some pretty good batsmen. Actually, India have quite a rounded team and they will see this as a significant chance. They would have prepared for this tour for a long time. I think it is going to be a really close series.”
