The India-Australia rivalry is one of the fiercest rivalries of the cricket world and as a cricket lover, you can be assured of the fact that you will get to see some exciting, thrilling and nail-biting contest between the two teams because the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is all set to start from 9 Feb 2023.
The first test match will be played at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur, and this 4-match test series will also decide the finalists of the World Test Championship 2021-23. While the Aussies are comfortably sitting at the top of the WTC points table, India is at the second position and it needs to win this series in order to play the finals against Australia. However, Australia is also kind of desperate to win the series because it has been on the losing side in the last three tournaments and at the same time, it will also like to register its first series win in India in the last 19 years.
How important it is for Australia to win this series in India can be understood by the words of Australian cricketer Steve Smith who said that winning a series in India is bigger than the Ashes.
While everyone is guessing which team will win the series, Mahela Jayawardene has already made his prediction. While speaking to Sports anchor Sanjana Ganesan in a show, the former Sri Lankan cricketer states that he feels it will be a great and interesting series. As per him, a lot will depend on how Australian batters adapt to the Indian conditions and how Indian batters deal with the Australian bowlers as they have a good bowling unit. He also says that how a team begins the series and which team gets the momentum will also play an important role in deciding the result of the series.
When Mahela Jayawardene is asked to pick his team between the two, he says that it is difficult to predict but being a Sri Lankan, he will prefer to see Australia win, may be by 2-1 but it will be a tough one.
The Sri Lankan squad also has a chance to play the finals of the WTC 2021-23, provided the Indian team has a poor outing in the BGT 2023 and Sri Lanka is able to win the 2-match test series against New Zealand.
Mahela Jayawardene also talks about the young Indian cricketer Shubman Gill who is in tremendous form at the moment. He says that Shubman Gill can perform well against Australian pacers because he is technically sound and is a good player of pace but the series will definitely be a tough one. He adds that Shubman Gill is in great form currently and if he is able to carry on in the same manner in red-ball format, he will be a great asset for team India. He is of the opinion that Gill needs to play with maturity and as per the conditions and situations and if he is able to bat with good tempo, he will definitely bring the Aussies under pressure.
Talking about his home team, Mahela Jayawardene said that at the start of the WTC 2021-23, Sri Lanka was ranked at 7th or 8th number but the team played some really good cricket on the consistent basis which brought them close to the chance of playing the WTC finals. He adds that though New Zealand is a strong team, he hopes that his home team will defeat it and the Aussies will also do some favors to them.
Do you agree with Mahela Jayawardene that the Aussies may end their 19-yr drought? Let us know your views in this regard.