Australia captain Tim Paine has given his views on the home Test series against India. Both teams will be involved in four Tests later this year
Sydney: Exactly a year ago, on January 7, 2019, India claimed their first-ever Test series win on Australian soil. Later this year, India are set to travel Down Under for another Test rubber. And, the home team captain Tim Paine has already spoken about it.
Australia have dominated their home Tests and completed five wins in a row, two against Pakistan and three versus New Zealand. After sealing a 3-0 win over the Kiwis, Paine gave his views on the four-Test India series.
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“If we go to Bangladesh and play well and get some wins over there, then we come back to Australia playing India, and that's a pretty mouth-watering series for players and for fans,” Paine said in Sydney.
“It's hard not to be looking at that, and we've got some people at Cricket Australia already looking ahead to that series. But for the main playing group our next goal is Bangladesh, and we certainly can't take that lightly,” he added.
last year, India made history!
Virat Kohli's team became the first one from India to record a Test series victory in Australia 🙌
🇮🇳 won the series 2-1. pic.twitter.com/gNpaboYcOL
Virat Kohli and his men won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 in Sydney on January 7, 2019. This had ended India’s 71-year wait to win a Test rubber Down Under.
In that series, Australia missed the services of Steve Smith and David Warner, who were serving bans for ball-tampering.
When Paine was asked whether the Australians will be looking for revenge over India, the wicketkeeper-batsman explained, “I certainly won't be looking at it as revenge. We're certainly a different side from what they played against here last year, and there's more at stake, there's World Test Championship points at stake.
“Both of the two teams, Australia and India, are eyeing off that final so every point is going to be critical. If we can continue our upward trend that we've shown in the last 12 months, then you're potentially looking at the top couple of teams that are in the top two or three, in the world. It's going to be an awesome series.”
With both India and Australia possessing good fast bowlers, Paine said, “They showed last year they've got a pace battery that's going to be every bit as good as ours so it's going to be one to watch.”
India have Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar while Australia’s line-up includes Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, James Pattinson and Josh Hazlewood. Cummins is currently the number one bowler in the ICC Test rankings.
In the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), India head the table with 360 points followed by Australia with 296 points.
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