'Full-strength' Australia in 2020-21 will be 'bigger challenge' for India - Sourav Ganguly

[Stan AF]

 

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly arrives for a press conference at the board's headquarters

ESPNcricinfo staff

 

Last year, India completed a historic 2-1 triumph in Australia, their first-ever Test series victory in the country. BCCI president Sourav Ganguly believes India will face an even bigger challenge when they go back down under in 2020-21 for a four-Test series against a "full-strength" Australia side.

Back in 2018-19, the hosts were without two key batsmen in Steven Smith and David Warner, who were serving year-long bans for their role in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal. With both Smith and Warner back in action, a "different Australia", according to Ganguly, awaits India next year.

 

 

Following the end of the 2019-21 World Test Championship cycle, India are also set to tour England (2021) and South Africa (2021-22). Ganguly wants India to win Test series on those tours as well.

 

"They beat Australia in 2018. But I will still expect to win in South Africa and England," Ganguly told India Today. "And I think, they are going back to Australia next year. That's going to be a bigger challenge and I am sure with the standards that Virat [Kohli] sets for himself and the others, he will know at the back of his mind that the 2018 Australia team was not the best Australian team of this generation. And what he is going to face next year, which is not very far away, is going to be a different Australia."

 

 

The enormity of the challenge notwithstanding, Ganguly was confident Indian have the ability to beat Australia in their backyard once more.

"The full-strength Australia are a strong Australia," Ganguly said. "They (India) have the team to beat them. They will just have to believe and get everything right to beat them. That's what I am looking for.

 

"When I became a captain, one of our aims was to compete with the best. And I remember, 2003 in Australia against that Australia, we were outstanding. And this team has the potential to do it. They have proper fast bowlers, they have spinners, they have a champion in Virat Kohli as a batsman."

As for the shorter formats, Ganguly said he would discuss with Kohli, head coach Ravi Shastri, and the other players, the potential causes - mental or otherwise - for India's defeats in crunch matches of world tournaments in the recent past. Under Kohli, India's defeat to Pakistan in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy was bookended by eliminations in the semi-finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2019 ODI World Cup.

 

 

"As I said, it's a very strong team. But then you have to get past the semi-final," Ganguly said. "Like in this World Cup, they played so well but lost to New Zealand one day. This is something that they will have to address. At some stage, we will speak to Virat, Ravi and then the players. You need to find a way to get past that hurdle in the big game. Whether it's a mental hurdle or whatever, they will do that. I still expect them to win in England and South Africa in Test matches, which they need to do to be a good side."

Ganguly rated Kohli's leadership skills highly, but wasn't willing to compare him with past India captains.

 

 

"Very good (Kohli's captaincy is)," Ganguly said. "But I don't think you can judge captains because the teams were different, the strengths were different. I don't think you can compare captains of any era with the captains of other eras. He is a fantastic cricketer, a fantastic person. Yes, he may make mistakes, he may say something, everybody does.

"I believe, as a human being, you carry what you do off the field to the field. He is a very solid person off the field. A lot of things rest on his shoulders in India.

 

 

"When India travel to Australia, it won't be easy. It will not be as easy as in 2018. I don't know whether I will still be board president then but I will be looking forward to Virat beating this Australian team in 2020 when they get there after the T20 World Cup."

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28382491/full-strength-australia-2020-21-bigger-challenge-india-sourav-ganguly

[SK_IH]

I agree with his judgement. But the narcissistic that Ganguly is, he still had the gall of gloating over his achievement against a similarly flawed Aus team of 2003. 

At least Kohli won the series, instead of drawing a series and still hailing it as achievement.

[rangeelaraja]

9 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

I agree with his judgement. But the narcissistic that Ganguly is, he still had the gall of gloating over his achievement against a similarly flawed Aus team of 2003. 

At least Kohli won the series, instead of drawing a series and still hailing it as achievement.

 

There is a very sinister side to Ganguly which most people are afraid to speak about openly. He has the streak of a nasty politician.

 

[Suhaan]

Kohli's team won the series because of superior bowlers ,Aussie team from 2003 missed Mcgrath,Warne but they still had Brett Lee, Gillespie,Mcgill who used to be no inferior to current lot of Starc,Cummins and Lyon

Aussies had a dynamic batting unit those days

We had fab 4 at their peak but were way behind in bowling if not for that Agarkar 6 fer in Adelaide ,we would have lost that series as well

[adi B]

40 minutes ago, SK_IH said:

I agree with his judgement. But the narcissistic that Ganguly is, he still had the gall of gloating over his achievement against a similarly flawed Aus team of 2003. 

At least Kohli won the series, instead of drawing a series and still hailing it as achievement.

Tbf to him ,he has spoken about that aus side not having warne and McGrath as well before so at least he is consistent in what he is saying .

 

[adi B]

I am not that confident of us beating aus again next year ,I think we will rather lose but what I definitely believe is that our bowlers will win us a test match at the least 

[Ankit_sharma03]

• Shaw , gill, Rahul all shud be in the mix provided Rahul gets back strong on his technique  as they will target Pujara n Vihari this time for sure 
• make sure saini gets settled before this tour, he can be the key to smith 
• Infact get siraj also ready incase of injury or form issue 

[Vickydev]

5 minutes ago, Ankit_sharma03 said:

• Shaw , gill, Rahul all shud be in the mix provided Rahul gets back strong on his technique  as they will target Pujara n Vihari this time for sure 
• make sure saini gets settled before this tour, he can be the key to smith 
• Infact get siraj also ready incase of injury or form issue 

Exactly .

Replace Bhuvi and Yadav with Saini and Siraj.

By NZ tour hopefully we would have moved on from Rohit as opener to Shaw as first choice. This time the planned attack will be on Agarwal , Vihari and Pujara, especially short stuff. Getting Gill ready will be paramount as he can replace any one of them.

[Rightarmfast]

I dont think we are going to lose to Australia in Australia. Unless Kohli touches the bowling unit, or tries to bring an allrounder in the scheme of things, like Pandya or Dubey. With pure bowlers, we are going to beat Australia. 

 

Australia is wary of Indians and slightly gets pressured playing against us. And Indian fast bowlers are very difficult to handle. All in all, I truly believe Indians will win.

[ganeshran]

I don't think we will win against aussies with Smith, Warner and now a in form Labu. Their bowling unit also is in much better form 

[Ankit_sharma03]

1 hour ago, Vickydev said:

Exactly .

Replace Bhuvi and Yadav with Saini and Siraj.

By NZ tour hopefully we would have moved on from Rohit as opener to Shaw as first choice. This time the planned attack will be on Agarwal , Vihari and Pujara, especially short stuff. Getting Gill ready will be paramount as he can replace any one of them.

NZ wkts are flat now specially when our test series wud be played so high chance he might score

[Sandeep99]

Does Ganguly remotely think he drew against a ‘full strength’ Australia in 2003? He speaks as if that is the case. Andy Bichel and Brad Williams are not even I the top 20 Aussie bowers of all time. At least Pujara and co tamed Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, and Lyon - easily Australia’s 2nd/3rd  greatest bowing attack of all time.

 

Have some shame, Ganguly.

[express bowling]

We will defeat Australia in the test series in Australia in 2020-21 provided ....

 

---- We arrange 2 three-day practice matches before the test series. We should not use T20Is or ODIs as practice for tests. This is the absolute key.

 

----  We get Saini and Siraj ready for tests.  We should be prepared for injuries to our front-line quicks. Can't depend on Bhuvi or Umesh as the backup pacers in Aussie-land.  Bumrah, Shami, Ishant, Saini and Siraj should be our 5 targeted quicks for that tour.

 

----  Get Gill ready as an opener. He can be both a backup opener as well as a backup middle order batter.

 

---- Don't mess with the core team of

1. Mayank

2.

3. Pujara

4. Kohli

5. Rahane

6. Vihari

7. Pant

8. Kuldeep / Jadeja

9. Ishant 

10. Shami

11. Bumrah.

 

Unless someone is injured or woefully out of form.

Edited December 29, 2019 by express bowling

[ShoonyaSifar]

Someone had to say this and burst the bubble Shastri and Kohli have been living in since that ‘series win in Australia’. Both have claimed to be the best ever Indian side comparing this team to greatest ever squads of WI in 80s and Aus in 2000s. That’s the level of arrogance.

 

To those comparing Ganguly’s team drawing in Aus without McGrath and Warne, a few things

• Ganguly never claimed his side to be the best ever, acknowledged the absence of McGrath and Warne. Kept raising the bar by saying how important it was to win away series
• We had not won a Test in Aus for nearly 17 years, in the name of an away Test win, all we had was a win vs SL for almost a decade. Drawing a series vs even a weak Aus for that era was a humongous achievement 
• That 2003 Aussie team was number 1 for nearly 5 years by then, kept winning even without their main players. They had been unbeaten at home for nearly 10 years. The Aus team we beat in 2018-19 were at best a mid tier Test team. without Smith and Warne, they would be a number 6 or 7 side

[Turning_track]

We need a bit of luck at the toss & if the batting unit complements an in form batter like Pujara did earlier this year then we will be in for a mouth watering contest. The Aussies have tweaked a bit in their batting compartment which has helped them since then, so I don't think they would bundle out like they did at MCG. I have confidence in our bowlers, hope our entire bunch would be fresh & fit at that time. Also expecting young bowler(s) to be given proper opportunities depending upon their domestic performances.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Turning_track

[Ankit_sharma03]

Diff between then n Now aussie team wud be 

 

• Warner n smith
• Labuschane has become an Ace in the pack now 
• Travis head , wade, burns wud be more mature by then
• Warne said their are talks of making travis head the captain which cud mean they can get alex carrey 
• Starc has worked on his action n is doing really well now
• If their batsman perform better which they wud bowlers with runs on board come at opposition even harder
• They ll come hard at us , they ll want to revenge previous defeat

[Suhaan]

Rohit in Aus against red ball is a question,we need to find a way to get get Shaw in the xi

Saini,Siraj( who knows maybe even Mavi)

We can stun Aussies this time ,i have used "stun" as majority of them believe they will paste us

[putrevus]

2003-04 Aussie attack was atrocious with Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams along with hit me for four every over Mcgill.One match got rained out in Brisbane or they were losing it.

 

They were played on the flattest pitches and yet our Fab Four collpased after being given great Boxing day start by Sehwag and promptly lost that test.

 

What Ganguly's team did was not repeatable where as what Kohli teams have done are repeatable.You need bowlers to take wickets.Ganguly's career went downhill fast after that high mark.

 

India would have lost that series if not for rain in the first test where as Kohli's team got robbed by rain in last test.

[adi B]

33 minutes ago, putrevus said:

2003-04 Aussie attack was atrocious with Nathan Bracken and Brad Williams along with hit me for four every over Mcgill.One match got rained out in Brisbane or they were losing it.

 

They were played on the flattest pitches and yet our Fab Four collpased after being given great Boxing day start by Sehwag and promptly lost that test.

 

What Ganguly's team did was not repeatable where as what Kohli teams have done are repeatable.You need bowlers to take wickets.Ganguly's career went downhill fast after that high mark.

 

India would have lost that series if not for rain in the first test where as Kohli's team got robbed by rain in last test.

India would have won 2-1 in 2003 but for some bad umpiring in Sydney and late declaration on day 4.

I wont belittle Kohli's achievement/captaincy (the way some of the posters are undermining ganguly's just to show your favourite players achievement as the better one) even if it was against the worst Australian batting line up in decades because the team is ours!

A win in Australia is like a goldmine ,doesn't matter against strong or weak team .

[putrevus]

20 minutes ago, adi B said:

India would have won 2-1 in 2003 but for some bad umpiring in Sydney and late declaration on day 4.

I wont belittle Kohli's achievement/captaincy (the way some of the posters are undermining ganguly's just to show your favourite players achievement as the better one) even if it was against the worst Australian batting line up in decades because the team is ours!

A win in Australia is like a goldmine ,doesn't matter against strong or weak team .

Bad umpiring was part of the deal those days, India got good fortune also with bad umpiring, India should have lost 2007 Lords test but the same umpire Bucknor gave Sreesanth not out.How would that series looked if India lost that test instead of drawing that test. 

 

It was not late declaration, they could have lost that if they had declared 50 runs short.That Indian team had no bowling and that Australian team had guts to fight from any situtation.

 

Fast bowlers were used as flavour of the month by all those Indian captains.You need fast bowling to win test matches away from India.

 

Shastri is damn right this Indian team has played the best cricket by any Indian team home or away in past 15-20 years , no team comes close.

Edited December 29, 2019 by putrevus