Indian cricket team will be favourites when they tour Australia: Simon Katich

If Cape Town sandpapered Australia’s reputation, its aftermath may have left the team is a position that could take some getting used to. After all, being underdogs at home and 11 Baggy Greens do make strange bedfellows.

But underdogs are what Simon Katich thinks the Australian cricket team will be when they host Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team between November and January in a four-Test series. India have never won a Test series in Australia.

“India deserve to be favourites given the cricket they have played, the quality in their Test team at the moment and the way Virat Kohli is leading them,” said Katich, a former Australia batsman who is also Kolkata Knight Riders’ assistant coach.

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Without Steve Smith, who averages 84 against India, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, the Australia batting would be wobbly and Katich said that would make it difficult for them to beat India but “it would also give some Australian batsmen to make their mark in Australian conditions.”

And home conditions, Katich said, will make it a competitive series. “Certainly, it won’t be the best Australian team because then you would have had those three but we would still have good bowling attack and that the series is being played at home is a positive.

“I don’t think it will be a walkover for India because if the wickets suits Australian quicks and Nathan Lyon to an extent, then Australia will have a pretty good advantage in the series,” he said.

But would the Australian public, whose outrage led to one year bans on Smith and Warner and nine months of international isolation for Bancroft, get behind the team?

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“Well, the Australian public is mindful of the fact that such behaviour is not on and I think Cricket Australia has sent the right message, mainly to the kids.

“But almost definitely they will back the team because the Australian public also loves the underdog and if it is their team, they will get right behind it. I look forward to a really good series,” said Katich.