Ahead of the home Border-Gavaskar Trophy this year, Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell feels playing well against the Indian spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will be key for them.
They have emerged as one of the finest spin-bowling pairs in recent times. In the first Test against Bangladesh at Chennai, Ashwin and Jadeja shared 13 scalps between them across two innings to guide India to a dominating 280-run win. For the five-Test series in Australia, the performance of the duo will make a huge impact on India's chances of retaining the series for the third consecutive time Down Under.
"I think that over a long period, having played against guys like Ashwin and Jadeja, those two seem to have always been the ones we've faced consistently, and the battles we've had with them have often dictated the outcome of the game. So if we play well against those two, we'll generally find ourselves in a better position compared to when they've had a field day and run through us. Those two guys have been there for most of my career, being of a similar age," Maxwell said on Star Sports.
Actually, he is thankful to India's finest fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah who, he said, has been at times the world's best one bowling pacer and whom he gets to see from the time when he first faced him in Mumbai Indians' nets during IPL 2013.
"And probably more recently, Jasprit Bumrah. I was there in his first year of the IPL in 2013 at Mumbai and pretty much faced him every day in the nets. To see him evolve from a young, untapped talent to what he is now—the probably best bowler across all three formats—is a pretty amazing story," he added.
The five-match Test series will be played from November 22 to January 7, 2025, in Perth, Adelaide (pink-ball match), Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.
India managed to defend the title when the last four successive BGT, home and away was played, which includes their famous series win in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
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