The build-up to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is on the upswing with India set to travel Down Under to defend the trophy across five Tests later this year. It is fair to say that the dominant Indian team traveling to Australia – at least in terms of eyeballs – is matching up to the hype of the Ashes and Former India international Yuvraj Singh believes a series win Down Under is as big as it can get.
India have had happy memories of touring the Australian shores, winning their last two away series here in the most dramatic fashion and Yuvraj thinks the current Indian team will make it three out of three. The stylish left-hander, who played 40 Tests for India, two of which came against Australia in Australia – scoring 17 runs across four innings (0, 5, 12, 0) in the 2007-08 series reckons winning in Australia is equivalent to winning the World Cup.
“Beating Australia twice in Australia is quite big, especially with our past history where we did not win in Australia. The team definitely will be prepared and as long as they are prepared I am sure they will do well. But it is not going to easy beating Australia in Australia– that’s like winning a World Cup. So, it is not impossible, but if they prepare well and if they stick together as a group I think they can win,” said Yuvraj Singh who was the guest of the popular YouTube show Club Prairie Fire with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan.
Yuvraj also added that the way India lost the first Test in 2020 (36 All out in Adelaide), he would not have thought the team would be able to bounce back the way they did. Under the stand-in captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane, India went on to beat Australia 2-1 for a memorable series win.
‘This Generation of Players Had 11 Match Winners’
“When India was 30 odd all out the previous tour and they won the series 2-1 from there, I would have never thought India could 2-1 in Australia after losing like that. We came pretty close, but this generation of players had 11 match winners, it was hard to beat them, said Yuvraj.
The former India international opined that the main reason for the success of the current lot of players in Australia is down to their extensive preparations.
“I think the current generation played cricket in terms of not thinking too much about the opposition. The preparation of the younger guys was really good. Like in 2003 or 2007 we had a week or 10 days or 2 weeks to prepare, but the last group prepared really well for the last tour – I mean the result is irrelevant – I think their preparation was really good the last tour and the one before that,” he added.
On Predicting the scoreline for the series, while Michael Vaughan and Adam Gilchrist reckoned Australia would win with 3-1 and 3-2 scorelines, Yuvraj bet on India.
Yuvraj Singh Predicts India to win 3-2
I think it is the best series world cricket can see at the minute – two best teams – I would think it’s going to be 3-1 to Australia,” said Vaughan.
“I am going to go with a 3-2 result to Australia. This Australian team, there’s a number of players who have never beaten India, they will be up for the challenge I reckon,” said Gilchrist.
“Two guys have gone for Australia, I should add India here and I say 3-2 to India,” added Yuvraj.
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