Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after the first test match against Bangladesh.
| Photo Credit: PTI
All-rounder Glenn Maxwell feels that Australia’s success in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy is directly linked with how their batters negate the ace Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
India are eyeing their third successive series triumph in the Antipodean nation after etching epochal victories during the 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours.
In fact, India remain the only Asian nation to beat the Australia at their home in a Test series.
Maxwell said Ashwin and Jadeja have often dictated the course of the game. “I think that over a long period of time, having played against guys like Ashwin and Jadeja, those two seem to have always been the ones we’ve faced consistently, and the battles we’ve had with them have often dictated the outcome of the game,” Maxwell told Star Sports.
Maxwell, who no longer features in Australia’s Test cricket scheme of things, having played his last match in 2017, said the Aussies will have to nullify the senior Indian spinners.
The Ashwin-Jadeja combine has taken a whopping 821 wickets between them in 330 innings with 50 five-wicket hauls.
“If we play well against those two (Ashwin, Jadeja), we’ll generally find ourselves in a better position compared to when they’ve had a field day and run through us.”
“Those two guys have been there for most of my career, being of a similar age,” he added. Maxwell also showered praise on pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for his development as an all-format bowler.
The Victorian termed Bumrah the best in business at the moment. “…And probably, more recently, Jasprit Bumrah. I was there in his first year of the IPL in 2013 at Mumbai and pretty much faced him every day in the nets.
“To see him evolve from a young, untapped talent to what he is now—the probably best bowler across all three formats—is a pretty amazing story,” he noted.
Published – September 27, 2024 04:32 pm IST
