With the India set to tour Australia at the end of this year, batting great Rahul Dravid believes that the presence of impactful players like Steve Smith and David Warner will pose a huge challenge for Virat Kohli’s men.
Smith and Warner were serving ball-tampering bans when Virat Kohli led team India registered its first series win in Australia, ending a 71-year wait. India will have a chance to extend their recent dominance over Australia when they tour Down Under once again later this year.
“I think it’s going to be a great series. Especially after India won last time, it was a fantastic win for India. So they (Australia) will be keen to correct that and there has been a lot of talk about that. It is the marquee series of the year and there has been great build up. I am really hoping we will be back to normal or at least normal enough to play the series,” Dravid said at Sony Sports’ Ten Pit Stop show which was aired Live on their Facebook page.
Cricket Australia had confirmed its international fixtures for the 2020-21 season which involves 3 T20Is, 4 Tests and 3 ODIs against India men’s cricket team between October 11 and January 17. Cricket Australia announced the fixtures after saying it is confident of hosting a safe and successful summer which promises to thrill cricket fans across the globe who are starved of live action due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It should be a cracking series between two top class teams. Australia are back to full strength with Smith and Warner. I think the area Australia struggled last time was their batting, they kept collapsing. Never gave their bowlers enough time to rest and they would hope it doesn’t happen this time,” Dravid added.
“Missing Smith and Warner was big for Australia because of the kind of impact they have on the team. They are the best batsmen they have and score the maximum runs. You saw the kind of impact Smith had on the Ashes…It is going to be a bigger and stiffer challenge this time around. India has got the firepower to compete with that. They have some top players too,” Dravid added.
