Former spinner picked Australia as second favourite after the Men in Green
04 July, 2020
PHOTO: AFP
Former Australia spinner Brad Hogg believes Pakistan cricket team is best suited to beat the Indian team on Indian soil.
Hogg, who featured in 123 One-Day internationals, 15 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and 7 Test matches over the course of his career, made the aforementioned claim on his YouTube channel, while responding to a viewer question asking ‘Which Test team can defeat India in India?’.
“Well I think the best team at the moment would be Pakistan because they have got a very strong pace unit and have got some good spinners. They also got depth in their batting and know the Indian conditions quite well,” said Hogg.
However, since the Men in Green cannot travel to India due to strained political relations between the two countries, Hogg selected Australia as the second favourite to beat India in their backyard.
“But they can’t go over there for government reasons, so the next best team is Australia and I am not being biased. We have got the likes of [David] Warner, [Marnus] Labuschagne and Steve Smith. We have got a very potent batting line-up as well as bowling line-up. I think if there is any chance of us beating India on Indian soil right now, it’s going to be over the next couple of years,” he added.
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Earlier in May this year, two-time World Cup winner called for a four-match Test series between arch-rivals, India and Pakistan, while stating that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has ‘opened the door for the ultimate cricket rebirth’.
“India should play Pakistan in a four-match Test series, with two matches in India and other two in Pakistan, over the Christmas period. We have not seen it for a while and the public are starving for it,” he said.
“There are many reasons for it. Firstly, [Virat] Kohli and Babar Azam, who is the best out of those two? Well that will be proven in this series. Then you have got [Jasprit] Bumrah against [Shaheen Shah] Afridi, which means quality bowling attack and then the spinners, Ravichandran [Ashwin] versus [Yasir] Shah and it’s all in Asian conditions. Brilliant stuff, let’s have it!” he added.
