In the form of Australia, India faces one final hurdle, before wrapping up an impeccable home season for them so far. In the 9 Home tests so far, which began against New Zealand at Kanpur and included a five-match series against England along with a solitary Test against Bangladesh, India have won 8 of them in comprehensive style. The only draw came at Rajkot in the first Test against England, where the wicket was just a paradise for the batsmen.
Such an emphatic performance from India finds its sources through the stern coaching of India’s greatest ever bowler, Anil Kumble. The former leg spinner’s coaching has transformed this young Indian team into a world beating side. To add to that, Virat Kohli’s ever aggressive captaincy has just been that added spike in the setup.
Ahead of the series against Australia, Kumble was grounded and mentioned that the visitors wouldn’t be underestimated despite their horrible record in Asia.
“Of course, those things (winning) are there, but we don’t want to look too far ahead,” Kumble said. “We certainly take it one game at a time. Before the NZ series as well, we looked at the entire series, but it was important to start every Test with the first session of the game. We’d like to keep it that way rather than look at the series. We want to start off on a good note here.”
The Indian coach mentioned that all individuals stepped up when it was needed.
“In all those matches that we have played and all those situations that we were in, each one has come up and found a solution to it,” he said. “Be it the top order or the lower order, the contributions have been really good. And with the bowling, it’s not just spinners, but the faster bowlers as well who have stood up in key moments. That’s what will hold us in good stead. There will be some tough moments in the series, but I’m sure the squad is capable of coming up with solutions.”
Lauding the overall achievements of his players, Kumble said, “They’re all fantastic players. The things that they have been able to achieve in their careers, some of them have played 40-45 Tests, Virat has played 50. The kind of achievements people have had, there’s not many who we can draw parallels with. So that way they’ve all achieved quite a bit. Someone like Ashwin has been the fastest to 250 wickets in Test history. That’s amazing. That kind of performers is really good to have in a squad.”