Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith
Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith. Image Credits: Twitter

IND VS AUS 2023: Gautam Gambhir: Indian team won the second test match at Delhi by six wickets against Australia. Men in Blue are leading the four-test match series by 2-0 in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir said he is still not sure if team India will clean sweep the series because visitors have some big players like Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, and Usman Khawaja in their squad.

Australian cricket team
Australian cricket team. Image Credits: Twitter

Gambhir on Australia’s possible comeback after trailing by 0-2 in the series-

“I cannot predict if it will be 4-0 because this dressing room still has individuals – Steve Smith, Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja – the batting will be extremely dependent on these three players if David Warner doesn’t play,I believe you cannot teach defense to these batters now. If you try to improve your technique in the middle of the series, you won’t even score the 260 and 120 you scored. Only individual performances can help Australia stage a comeback and not a collective performance,” said India’s former cricketer Gambhir.

Australia’s star batter, Steve Smith’s record against India is astonishing. Smith has played 16 matches against India and scored 1813 runs with an average of 67.14. The right-handed batter Smith scored a hard-fought century in the second innings of the Pune test in 2017 to fashion Australia’s 333-run win against Asian giants India. Meanwhile, former Australian skipper Smith and his identical batting partner Labuschagne have not been able to go par 50 runs in an inning in this series.

“If one of them scores a double century, you would remember Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman did that when India were down and out, one player scored a 280 (281) and another scored a 150 (180) after a follow-on and India won the series. Such things have happened. So you can’t count them out but technically, there are a lot of issues,” said former cricketer cum analyst Gambhir.

World no.1 in the ICC men’s test batter ranking, Marnus Labuschagne has an average of 57.35 in 35 test matches for the Baggy Greens. Labuschagne averages 62.2 vs spin but has below par average of 33.33 on Asian pitches in the longer format of cricket.

“There are a lot of players in that dressing room who will have so many self-doubts that it will be extremely difficult to recover from that. Imagine if Usman Khawaja scores a double hundred or Steve Smith individually scores a century or 150, then Australia can achieve those scores but technically, I don’t see them coming back,” he further added.

Rohit Sharma-led side will now be looking to win the third test match to insure their place World Test Championship finals. Asian Giants India will take on Pat Cummins-led Australia for the third test match of BGT at Indore on March 1st. India has now successfully retained the BGT four consecutive times after winning the Delhi test match.

Also read: IND vs AUS 2023: David Warner Ruled Out Of Last Two Tests