India will host Australia in the four-match Test series on February 9, which will conclude with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Following the three-match ODI series, the series will be a part of Australia’s tour of India. The Australians last triumphed in a Test match played on Indian soil in 2017. In that match, left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe’s 12 wickets were the difference between the two teams. Michael Clarke, a legendary player for Australia, believes that his team is underprepared for the next Tests and that they should have chosen to play a practice match instead, which would have helped them get used to the conditions in India. “That’s the part I don’t understand”, he said.
“The no-tour game before the first Test in India. I hope I’m proven wrong but I think that is going to be significant. Batting in those conditions in one-day cricket and T20 cricket is one thing, batting in Indian conditions in Test cricket it is a completely different game.” “You need a completely different plan to what you have played in Australia, the way you start your innings against spin bowling, the way you play reverse swing, through the Australian summer we didn’t see any reverse swing, the games were over in two, three days. So reverse swing is going to play a big part (in India), all these batters that walk out and play bowlers bowling 130-140ks – there’s every chance India is going to play at least two spinners, so it’s a completely different game”, he further added.
Clarke feels that the Indian conditions are extremely difficult to bat on. “If you get in you need to go on and make a big score because your first 20 runs in India in the second innings, whoa, a ball that you go forward to and block in Australia easily against spin, over there can roll along the ground, can bounce and take your glove. You can go to block it outside off and it bowls you leg stump, natural variation over there is massive”, he said.
