The Australian former pacer Brendon Julian predicts a four-day victory for Australia against India in the opening match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series with great boldness. Julian played seven Tests and 25 ODIs for Australia between 1993 and 1992. He feels India’s current problems, like a few unavailable players and a few concerns about forms, have made Australia strong favorites to win the first Test against India.
Australia Favourites Ahead Of Border-Gavaskar Series
Come Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and the favourite for the Aussies would surely be Australia. As cricketer Julian puts it, predicting a thumping win for the Aussies, there are quite a few issues that India has to deal with. One such issue may see Rohit Sharma missing out on the first Test, something India would least like ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Series. And Bumrah would be taking over as captain.
According to Julian, this is a tough ask because Bumrah will be opening the bowling and leading the side, which he feels is burden for a pacer. “He is a great bowler, no question about it. But all of a sudden when you are opening the bowling and captaining the side, that’s a whole different ball game,” Julian said on Fox Cricket.
The problems are not limited to Bumrah’s captaincy. Julian reported the unavailability of Mohammed Shami, who is participating in the Ranji Trophy and Virat Kohli’s form as another issues with India. “Kohli is not going great.”. He’s not bonding with the captain probably and the coach,” Julian mentioned, pointing out Kohli’s failing in the last New Zealand series where he couldn’t score a century in six consecutive matches. He feels that all this will really affect India in a huge way in terms of a better performance.
But Julian is not shutting all doors for a battle from India either. He agrees that despite the team being down, Kohli, in particular, can turn the game around. Nevertheless, Julian believes unless India get their combinations right pretty soon, the first Test will be over before anyone realizes.
Virat Kohli VS Nathan Lyon
One of the most intriguing battles will be between India’s former captain Virat Kohli and Australia’s premier off-spinner Nathan Lyon. Kohli has had a really bad time lately against the spinners, especially in Indian conditions. He will be tested by Lyon on a bouncy and fast Perth wicket.
While Julian acknowledges Kohli loves batting in Australia’s lively conditions, he believes that Lyon will be the worst nightmare for the Indian star. “The nemesis for him would be Nathan Lyon. He’s got the wood over him, but he is going to enjoy the conditions,” Julian explained.
Though Kohli might be scoring an unprecedented record in excess of 2000 runs from 25 Tests against Australia, Julian feels Lyon’s ability to get the best out of Kohli in tough conditions would prove crucial for Australia’s possibilities of winning the first Test.
Will Australia Clean Up India In 4 Days?
As the series approach begins, Julian’s prediction of Australia cleaning up India in just four days adds more suspense to the opening Test. India boasts of talent enough and can surely turn the tide; however, a solid form from Australia coupled with what India is going through right now gives them a higher probability of taking an early lead in the series.
So much is at stake, and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy promises to be quite an experience. It would be interesting to see whether Julian’s prophecy comes through or if India can pull it back from the jaws of defeat for the prized trophy.
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