Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has warned that India could be “smoked 4-0” in the Test series if skipper Virat Kohli does not set the tone in the white-ball games before his departure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 32-year-old Kohli has been granted paternity leave by the BCCI to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. He will lead the team in the white-ball series, comprising three ODIs and as many T20s, and the opening Test at Adelaide before heading back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These One-dayers and these Twenty20s is where Virat Kohli can really stand up and lead from the front,” Clarke said on ‘Sky Sports Radio’ on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If India don’t have success in the One-dayers and the T20s, they are in deep trouble in the Test matches and they’ll get smoked 4-0, in my opinion,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clarke feels that despite featuring in only one Test, the talismanic Indian skipper could still play a huge role in the outcome of the red-ball series by dominating in the limited overs game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think the tone he sets with this team will play a big role when he leaves, after the first Test match.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The much talked about contest between the two best sides in the world would begin on November 27 with the ODI series-opener in Sydney.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former World Cup-winning skipper said Jasprit Bumrah will also have a huge role in the much anticipated series, adding that the star pacer needs to bowl aggressively to put the pressure on the home side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Opening bowler, probably the best short-form bowler in the world at the moment but his success in Test cricket has been exceptional as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“He’s quick, he’s got a really different action, so I think he needs to set the tone and be really aggressive to the Australian batters,” Clarke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 39-year-old pointed out that Bumrah has been winning the duel against the formidable David Warner and also has the ability to trouble star batsman Steve Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Again, it’s not just about the wickets he takes, it’s how he bowls. He’s got Davey Warner’s measure at the moment, he’s got him out a number of times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Even to someone like Steve Smith, he’s got to use that short ball consistently and regularly, like Jofra Archer did to Steve Smith in the Ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They’ve (Bumrah and Kohli) got to take the Aussies on and those two players are India’s best two players to be aggressive to the Australians,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India made history by winning their first Test series on Australian soil in the 2018-19 rubber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the hosts were then without their star batsmen Warner and Smith, who were were serving bans for their involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering incident.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has warned that India could be “smoked 4-0” in the Test series if skipper Virat Kohli does not set the tone in the white-ball games before his departure. The 32-year-old Kohli has been granted paternity leave by the BCCI to be with his wife for the birth of their first child. He will lead the team in the white-ball series, comprising three ODIs and as many T20s, and the opening Test at Adelaide before heading back home. “These One-dayers and these Twenty20s is where Virat…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28653,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28651\/revisions\/28653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}