Don’t get carried away with pace-friendly wickets in Australia: Kapil Dev to Indian bowlers

India and Australia kickstart the Border Gavaskar Trophy with a day-night encounter at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc - A plethora of stars will be battling it out in the four-match Test series. There are several reasons to look forward to this star-studded series. 

In a virtual session hosted by Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kapil Dev insisted Indian bowlers to back their strengths and not get over-excited with the bouncy nature of wickets in Australia. 

"Our fast bowlers are not that used to bowling on Australian pitches. Sometimes they may get carried away when they see a little bit of bounce and start bowling short. It's very important to understand their pace and back their strengths," Kapil said. 

The legendary all-rounder reckons that Aussies have a massive advantage in the pink-ball Test match as they have played more matches than the visitors. "Definitely Australia have the edge. They are playing in their backyard. If India were playing a pink-ball Test in India, I would say 80 percent of our chances. But Australia have played so many (pink ball) Tests and they understand the conditions better under the floodlights." - he added. 

In 2018-19, the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma posed a lot of discomfort to the Aussie batsmen, picking 48 wickets at an average of 21.06. Despite Ishant Sharma's absence this time around, the Indian pace bowling annex sports a formidable look. The experienced pace bowling troika - Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Umesh Yadav - will play an important role in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. 

[TOI Input]