Melbourne, Dec 24: Spin legend Shane Warne believes Australia will “blow away” India in the Boxing Day Test as the visitors are still a “bit shocked” by the Adelaide humiliation.
Australia had bundled out India for their lowest-ever Test score of 36 in the opening Test which the hosts won by eight wickets.
The next game is due to start on Saturday and India will be without talismanic skipper Virat Kohli, who has gone on paternity leave.
“I think Australia is probably going to blow them away,” Warne, who claimed a record 708 Test wickets for Australia, told Fox Cricket.
“Having said that, they have some class players to come in like KL Rahul. Young Gill will come in. (Ajinkya) Rahane is a class act. We know what (Cheteshwar) Pujara can do,” he said.
“(Mohammed) Shami is a huge loss as well. He’s such a quality bowler. And if you look at bowlers for the Melbourne conditions – drop in pitches – Shami hits the seam and stands it up and bowls a good length and straight.”
Indian batsmen drew a lot of flak after the Australian bowling unit bamboozled the visitors in the opening Test.
However, Warne believes the Australian pace battery deserves more credit for the win in the series-opener than the criticism faced by the Indian batsmen. “Yeah, you can have a go at the Indians but I think you would rather give credit to the Australians and how well they bowled,” the former leggie said. (PTI)
