Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Wary Australia will not ‘underestimate’ India

A shattering defeat to New Zealand on home soil would have caused a “little bit of damage” to India’s confidence but Australia will not make the mistake of underestimating the visitors, said charismatic batter Marnus Labuschagne here on Tuesday. World No. 2 India are heading into the five-Test Border-Gavaskar series, starting here on Friday, following their whitewash at home, which ended their 12-year unbeaten run in their own backyard.

Australia’s middle-order mainstay Labuschagne believes the loss to the Kiwis would have dented India’s confidence. “It’s really hard to judge. They played in completely different conditions — spinning conditions — but having India come here off the back of a loss at home is something that’s never happened before (in my career),” Labuschagne said.

“I think that is a good thing in terms of... they are probably a little bit lower on confidence, not coming off a Test victory, losing to New Zealand 3-0. I think that’s going to do a little bit of damage to their confidence.”

However, Labuschagne insisted that Australia, who have lost each of their last four series to India both home and away, will have to guard against complacency.

“They’re a quality line-up and they’re one of the best teams in the world. So you can never underestimate a team like that,” he said.

India staged an incredible comeback on their last Australia tour in 2020-21 to win 2-1, despite the absence of regular skipper Virat Kohli and injuries to several other frontline players along the way.

“That’s what happened in 2021 — the likes of (T) Natarajan played, (Mohammad) Siraj got his first crack in Australia, Washington Sundar played,” Labuschagne recalled. “They had all these guys that were probably a little bit new — Shubman (Gill) played those couple of games (in the 2020-21 series) — so there were new faces around,” he added.

India are set to take the field without regular captain Rohit Sharma and No. 3 batter Gill in the first Test, but Labuschagne said visitors have enough talent in their ranks to meet all challenges.

“They’re a quality line-up and they’ve showed that over a period of time. You can’t ever underestimate the depth of Indian cricket,” he said. “Anyone that gets the opportunity to play for India has had to do a lot of hard work and find his way into that side,” he added.

Meanwhle, former Australia opener David Warner is convinced Kohli will be amongst the runs in the upcoming series and has warned his former teammates not to write off the Indian batting great.

“I don’t worry about Virat Kohli away from Australia, I worry about Virat Kohli in Australia. He averages 55,” Warner said. “I think Virat is going to be amongst the runs. I’ve always said you’re not out of form, you’re out of runs,” he added.