Before the world’s biggest festival of cricket Indian Premier League (IPL), starts, the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy will work as a starter for Indian fans. Both teams have been preparing in full swing before the prestigious tournament. The Australian team practiced with a duplicate of Ashwin so they could face Ashwin in the match and won the BGT series after 19 years in India. The first match of the series will start on 9th February at Nagpur.
Former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan advised the Indian team with a set game plan through which they could get the biggest wicket of the Australian premier batter, Steve Smith. In a media house show, Irfan was asked about the biggest threat for the Indian side; in the reply, Irfan stated Steve is one of the Australian legends and can score runs in every side of the wickets. And to get him Indian team needs a proper plan.
“No doubt about that. He is an Australian legend. If you look at Australian history, he is up there. He has troubled the Indian bowlers and scored tons of runs. Even though you know that he has a really solid bottom hand, he still finds ways to score runs in front of the wickets, on the off and leg sides. We need to have a proper plan,” said Pathan.
Further, Irfan said one guy from the Indian cricket team who can get him is Axar Patel because his trajectory troubles him.
“The challenge of Steve Smith will be there for Indian cricket, but I think one guy, which I have a great feeling, who can have the numbers against him is Axar Patel. If he regularly plays all the matches, the kind of trajectory he has, he can be a big threat to him,” the former pacer further said.
Further, he added that Axar used to bowl wicket to wicket, which could be an alarm bell against a player like Smith. He could get him on LBW or bowl because of his bowling technique.
“The line and length he bowls, the straight ball he bowls, he can bring the lbw or bowled into play against Steve Smith, especially because he uses his bottom hand a lot. A bowler who continuously bowls at the stumps can be an alarm bell against such a player, that is Axar Patel,” he added.
The record of the vice-captain of the Australian team is outstanding against the Indian team. He has played 14 Test matches against India, in which he has scored 1742 runs at an exceptional average of 72.58.
