Virat Kohli-led Team India will start their Australia tour with a three-match T20 series starting November 21, Wednesday.
However, the real test will be the four-match Test series against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on December 6. India are favourites to win the upcoming Test series as the star duo of Australia, Steve Smith and David Warner, will not be playing in the series due to their one-year ban by Cricket Australia in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal.
Ahead of India’s tour to Australia, former Australia great Dean Jones has said he ”would be surprised” if the visiting team didn’t win Test series. Jones also predicted Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin “to have a ripper of a series”.
“I’m expecting Ashwin to have a ripper of a series. He had a good series last time India were here, and had he played in that first Test in Adelaide, India might have won the series,” Dean Jones was quoted as saying by Cricketcountry.
“India have a good chance, they’ve never won a Test series over here, and if they don’t I would be surprised.”
Speaking about Indian spin wizard R Ashwin and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, Jones said, “How Australia play Ashwin and Kuldeep is going to decisive, and that’s why I think we have to have (Peter) Handscomb and (Aaron) Finch, who are our best players of spin, available so they can counter them.”
The Indian side lost the four-match Test series 0-2 when they visited Australia last time in 2014-15. During India’s last tour to Australia, Virat Kohli had impressed the audience with his spectacular batting. Kohli has played eight Tests Down Under and has amassed 992 runs at an average of 62 with the highest score of 169. The 29-year-old Indian captain has also scored five centuries in Australia in the longest format of the game.