Australia vs India 2018: Sourav Ganguly wants to field a rather interesting combination in Tests

A lot is at stake for Team India when they travel to Australia especially in Tests. The home team isn’t in the best of shapes and Virat Kohli’s team has the number one ranking to justify. Their last two overseas tours were a lot of promise and little delivery. They lost the Test series in South Africa and England, thus Australia tour puts the reputation on the line. The selectors have also made a bold move by picking a batting heavy team, thus Rohit Sharma also features and Sourav Ganguly backs him to do well there.

Team India drew a couple of Tests on the previous tour and lost a couple to end the series 2-0 down. It was Virat’s first outing as skipper, and though he scored over 600 runs with four centuries couldn’t win his team a single game. In South Africa and England, their bowlers were always spot on, got the wickets, pushed the opposition on the backfoot but the batsmen barring Kohli were inconsistent which hurt them the most.

Put runs on the board

Ganguly is also of the view that if the Indian batsmen put runs on the board they have the bowling to get 20 wickets. “If our batsmen put runs on the board, I am confident that our bowlers will do the rest. With the kind of form our batsmen are in, there is every likelihood that India will register their maiden Test series victory Down Under this time,” the former Indian skipper was quoted as saying on TOI.

The Indian pace attack has variety and fire along with experience all the five bowlers Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Umesh Yadav have the ability to trouble the batsmen with the new ball and old. Ganguly thinks three pacers and one spinner should constitute the bowling attack.

Ganguly wants only four bowlers

Though it is considered a rather defensive move but he would field six batsmen along with the wicketkeeper. He certainly wants to have Rohit in the team and position him lower down at number six.

“I expect three of them to figure in the playing XI. They are all quick and skilful enough to trouble any batsman. They must, however, quickly adjust their lengths to become more effective on the hard and bouncy Australian pitches,” he said.

“If you ask me, I would bat Rohit at No. 6 and go in with three pacers and one spinner. The simple logic is that Rohit is batting at his best and you don’t leave out a batsman of his calibre when he is in such good nick. Moreover, Rohit is very strong square of the wicket which is a prerequisite for success on Australian pitches,” Sourav mentioned while further talking about the playing combination.

The Indian team will play four Tests in Australia starting December 6.

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