Keeping in mind about the hard challenge awaiting for them in the forthcoming encounter against World Cup champions India, Adam Voges of Australia opined on Tuesday that the crucial way is to make a good start in the seven-match tournament, which can offer an opportunity to the visitors to haul the number one ODI ranking.
The 34-year-old Western Australia middle order batsman elaborated that there is a huge incentive for them in this tournament. Evidently, India is number one at this moment but if they can seize a good victory in this series, they have got an opportunity to bypass them, so there is no greater incentive than that.
Voges remarked after Australia concluded their 3rd and last day's practice session at the Cricket Club of India that certainly they need to play tremendously well for that, just like last time he was here. If they can play some good cricket, with a good start, he thinks that will be vital.
Notably, the first Twenty20 game between the two squads is scheduled on 10th October at Rajkot prior the beginning of the seven-ODI series at Pune on 13th October.
Remarkably Voges, who declared that he has entirely recovered from his tired back as well as hamstring that compelled him to come back home midway through the Champions T20 League while playing for Perth Scorchers, did not agree at all that Australia's batting order looked quite fragile.
He mentioned that he thinks that their one-day batting has been okay. They played quite well against England in their conditions. Certainly, the Champions Trophy which was lifted by India didn't go as they would have liked but he thought the manner they bounced back against England in England was quite good. He explained that they will take a huge confidence out of that as a batting group and they have got some continuity he guesses with their batsmen. In fact, they know their role and like he stressed, a good start to their batting group will be vital.
Voges emphasized that overall India's spin bowling was challenging in their home conditions, which he felt, his team's players are acquainted with to these days. Moreover, Voges, who has played 25 ODIs and seven T20s added that they need to have their plans against Ashwin, Jadeja and all the Indian bowlers. It is supposed to be a tough work against spinners in their conditions. One cannot become no.1 without being a very good all-round team. They will be well prepared.
He clarified that as long as they have got some clear game plans about how they are going to deal with them, it’s about executing them. Precisely, it is going to be a big challenge but he is definitely looking forward to it. He insisted that they understand the conditions very well. Most probably the dew will play a role in day-night games. He agreed that they have played a lot of cricket over there. Majority of the guys have played and got adapted to the conditions. He exclaimed that it is great to have played here at the CCI and get used to the conditions. Hence, they will jump on the plane this afternoon and will get ready to go.
When interrogated about the controversial all rounder Shane Watson acting as a mentor to his teammates, Voges replied that the younger team members would benefit from him as well as wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin, due to their enormous experience. Particularly, Shane and Brad Haddin is a senior player and these guys brought a treasure of experience from India. It cannot be ignored that Shane has played a lot of cricket here and any tips that he can give to any of their guys, he is sure they all will be listening. He claimed that the team was a close-knit group with a few members, along with him, who have been a part of the 2009 team that won by 4-2 in India.
He announced that he thinks that they are a pretty close-knit team right now. They posses some guys, who have played in the series in 2009 and he thinks they have got four or five guys from that trip who hauled success at that time. They know how to win here and that is something that would be vital.
