Indian Team Will Be Looking For Nothing Less Than 5-0: Harbhajan Singh
Jan 9, 2019 at 3:59 PM
Indian off-spinner and one of the players who made merry against Australia, Harbhajan Singh has opined that the current Australian team is Sri Lankan team, who have donned yellow dress during the matches,
“The kind of cricket Australia is playing it appears as if Sri Lankans are playing in yellow clothing. I haven’t seen that Australian thing from them here. And whatever I know of Virat and his team they will be looking for nothing less than 5-0,” Harbhajan told Aajtak.
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Recently, India whitewashed Sri Lanka in each format of the game on their tour of the country and won all the nine games on tour. It was expected that Australian team led by Steven Smith might give them some challenge, but till now, they have failed to do so.
Though in each of the three contests, they have played good cricket but have faltered at crucial stages.
In the first game, they got early wickets but could not stop the pair of Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni from adding crucial runs. In the second contest in Kolkata, Australia made a comeback by taking regular wickets in the middle overs but again, failed to chase down the target. In the third contest, they could not cash on the pressure created after falling of quick wickets in middle overs and lost the game and the series.
Further, Bhajji also said that this Australian team is not the same as the older one, which had many match winners in the side,
“Look it’s obvious the Australian side that I competed against, the top 7 or 8 blokes were all match winners. Anyone could come in and win a match in his own right or score a hundred. They had that ability. I don’t think in this Australian side anyone other than Finch or Warner or to some degree Steve Smith can take the team forward. The middle order does not know to rotate the strike. When they go for big shots, they do it taking big risks. This team is not a shadow of that Australian side,” he added.
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At present, the Australia are a good team and also have many players who have experience of playing in IPL, but they have failed to emulate their IPL success in the series. Along with that, they have not been able to come up with performances at the same point in time, and in case every player contributes to the game, then they can upset India in the remaining games.
The fourth and fifth ODI of the series will be played in Bengaluru and Nagpur recently. A three-match T20I series will follow.
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