Australia Will Find It Difficult To Compete Against India, Says Ajit Wadekar 1

Former India skipper Ajit Wadekar, who led the team to successful series wins in the West Indies and England in 1971, has said the Australian team doesn’t stand a chance against India and will struggle in the four-match series, starting later this month.

“Of course, Australia are a difficult side to play against. They have this ability of not giving up till the last ball. Having said that, I believe it would be difficult for the Steve Smith-led side to compete against India,” Wadekar tells ANI.

“It would be an interesting series no doubt. But still, I don’t think that they would be successful in the upcoming tour. India has a balanced side. We have the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and others that make our batting line-up very strong,” he added.

A team has to rely on spinners in order to be successful when they tour sub-continent but Wadekar feels the Australian bowling attack relies heavily on pacers because of their weak spin-bowling department.

“Australian bowling attack heavily depends on its pacers whereas wickets in India are spin-friendly. On the other side, Indian bowlers know how to bowl in subcontinent conditions,” Wadekar said.

Australia have included four spinners for India tour with Nathan Lyon being the most experienced one. Rest of the three spinners namely Steve O’Keefe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson are yet to make their mark at the international level.

The four-match Test series between India-Australia starts February 23 in Pune.