Former Australian Cricketer Mike Hussey says while India is not short on talented depth players, inexperience in Australian conditions will be a test for some of the more inexperienced players.
Just days out from the first ball of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, skipper Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the first test at Optus Stadium following the birth of his second child.
Over the weekend India also announced batter Shubman Gill has also been ruled out with a broken thumb.
This leaves India with an opening batsman dilemma of their own, with Abhimanyu Easwarn and Devdutt Padikkal – who are relatively untried in Australian test conditions, and KL Rahul – who, despite being cleared to play, is under an injury cloud of his own, as options to fill the vacancies.
With India’s shaky recent form against New Zealand on their home turf and experienced players out the side, Hussey believes Australia could expose them in the upcoming Perth test.
“There’s obviously a huge population to choose from that all are absolutely passionate about cricket, so they’ve got a lot of depth and a lot of quality,” he told SportFM.
“I guess where we can expose them and possibly catch them on the hop is that maybe the reinforcements they’re bringing in might not have much experience about playing in Australian conditions.
“They’ll be very adept at playing in Indian conditions, but batting at Optus Stadium against a high quality, world-class bowling attack would be a different kettle of fish altogether and sometimes you need a few goes at it, a few different tours to figure out how to score runs in these conditions.
“Possibly the guys with any experience of playing in Australian conditions could be exposed certainly, but don’t underestimate the talent. There’s so much talent coming out of that country, it’s unbelievable.”
India has only played in Perth once in 2018 against an undermanned Australian side lacking Steve Smith and David Warner.
On that one occasion, Australia won its only test match of the series by 146 runs, with Australia’s bowling attack creating headaches for the visitors on Perth’s unique wicket – particularly in the second innings where no batsman scored over 30 runs.
Western Australian pitches are renown for their pace and bounce, which makes it a difficult task for visitors to navigate, particularly the more inexperienced batsmen.
Hussey expects the Perth pitch conditions will have a major influence and India may struggle to adjust their game to it.
“Perth is a unique place to play and that’s why it’s such an advantage for us over other countries coming to Australia,” he said.
“Early in your innings and when the ball’s new, you can allow the ball to pass through to the keeper so much and the ball’s just going to carry over the stumps all the time. You can let a lot of balls go.
“Then the good thing is because it’s such a true fast pitch, you’ll catch up the runs later. You can score so freely once the ball gets a bit older, you’re in and used to the conditions.
“It’s honestly one of the best places to bat in the world but you need to do those hard yards early and it’s difficult for overseas players to come because they’re not used to doing it.
“We’re lucky here in WA, we’ve been brought up on it doing it day-in day-out for most of your career but if you’ve been playing on low slow pitches for your whole career, it’s not a natural thing and not easy to make that adjustment.
“It’s a big adjustment for overseas players and I wouldn’t be surprised if we do see a lot of dismissals caught in the slips with Indian players playing at balls that perhaps they don’t have to.”
Given the form India carries into the series after their embarrassing home series loss against New Zealand, the Australian conditions and the inexperience within the side, Hussey predicts an Australian series win.
“I actually think Australia are going to win and they’re going to win well. Australia are really primed for this series,” he said.
The Border-Gavaskar series starts on Friday November 22nd in Perth at Optus Stadium, with first ball at 10:20am AWST.
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