Sourav Ganguly thinks Australia's tour will be tougher this time but expects Virat Kohli & Co. to win

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Former team India captain and current BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly is hopeful that Virat Kohli & Co. can repeat the 2018 success in Australia when the two most powerful teams will face each other later this year in the highly anticipated Test series.

When India toured Australia previously in 2018, the Virat Kohli led side created history by winning the Test series down under for the first time. However, Ganguly expects a tougher challenge this time for Team India to repeat the same kind of success as Australia will be boosted by David Warner and Steve Smith's presence who were missing on the previous tour due to their suspensions.



Speaking to India Today, the BCCI president said, "It is going to be a tough series. It is not going to be what it was two years back. It is going to be a strong Australia but our team is as good. We have the batting, we have the bowling. We just need to bat better. You know the best team overseas bat well. When we were so successful in England, in Australia, in Pakistan we were getting 400-500-600 in Test matches. I said that to Virat as well."

"Because you are Virat Kohli, your standards are high," he pointed out. "When you walk out to play when you walk out with your team, I don't expect you to just play well against Australia, I expect you to win. So you have to live up to the standards. For his captaincy tenure, this will be a milestone series - more than the World Cup".

Ganguly also revealed that he has been communicating with the Indian skipper Virat Kohli on the need to stay fit with the players not having played since early March due to COVID-19.



"I have been in touch with him, telling him, 'you have got to stay fit. You haven't played cricket for six months, you don't want your fast bowlers to come back and get injured. They have been training, but training and playing cricket is different".

"You have got to make sure your best bowlers are ready for the tour and fit. Whether it's Shami (Mohammad), whether it's (Jasprit) Bumrah, whether it's Ishant (Sharma), whether it's (Hardik) Pandya, they have to be at the top of their match fitness when they land in Australia", he added.

The India tour of Australia is scheduled to begin from October 11 with 3 T20Is followed by 4 Tests and 3 ODIs. The Border-Gavaskar test series will commence from December 3 and it will end on January 7 before ODIs taking place from January 12.

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