Published: Oct 12, 2013, 06:05 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 12, 2013, 06:05 PM (IST)
George Bailey, the Australian captain, believes India’s top seven are very strong © Getty Images
Pune: Oct 12, 2013
They are determined to recapture the number one spot in ICC rankings but Australia skipper George Bailey said it would be “silly” to assume that the visitors would be able to thrash India by the requisite 6-1 margin in the seven-match series starting.
“I think it will be silly to go hoping for a 6-1 result.
It’s a long way away and realistically I will be very surprised if that happens. It’s one match at a time focus for us,” Bailey told reporters at the pre-match press conference.
The Tasmanian, when reminded that Australia had never lost a best-of-seven bilateral ODI series in India winning 4-2 on the two previous occasions, said his team would not gain any extra plus from this fact.
“I don’t think there’s any advantage. It’s a nice statistic though but there’s no advantage to be gained from this. I don’t worry about it too much, I am not really thinking about maintaining the [winning] streak,” he said.
Bailey, who is leading the team in absence of injured regular captain Michael Clarke, was candid in his admission that India boast of a formidable batting outfit.
“India are very good. They deserve to be number one in the world. They were the best team in the Champions Trophy.
They are a very well balanced side and we have to combat that.
We are well placed to do that.
“I feel their batting is very strong. They bat right through to eight and nine. Their top seven are really strong.
But if you focus on one batter then another one is going to jump up and hurt you,” he said.
The Aussies started the tour on a losing note when they were beaten by four wickets in the one-off T20 game at Rajkot, but Bailey saw a few positives for his team from the match.
“[There were] plenty of positives. [It was a] good game of cricket. Aaron Finch‘s form at the top of the order was great and the way Xavier Doherty bowled was very pleasing. We fielded well, our attitude was good and there were a lot of things to like.”
