Former wicketkeeper Farokh Engineer on Tuesday said that India will never have a better opportunity of winning a series in Australia as the hosts are suffering from poor form and missing two mainstays in their batting order in Steve Smith and David Warner, who are banned, PTI reported.
After drawing the Twenty20 International series 1-1, India and Australia will be locked in a four-match Test series, beginning in Adelaide on December 6. “Australia have got two big names missing in (Steve) Smith and (David) Warner. When you take two big names out of an (playing) XI, the team is weakened considerably,” Engineer.
“India will never have a better chance of beating Australia. Australia are a pretty ordinary team at the moment, without these two (Smith and Warner), and we should make the best of this opportunity,” 80-year-old told reporters in Mumbai.
Smith and Warner are facing a year-long ban after their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. Stressing that India have an all-round side, Engineer said the team was playing good cricket and that they should defeat the hosts.
“India are playing very good cricket, we have a great captain in Virat Kohli, he is doing superbly well. We have got a good all-round side, good pace bowlers, good spinners, so let’s take advantage of that and beat Australia in Australia, which we should be doing and we will be doing, god willing,” added Engineer, who played 46 Test matches for India.
Engineer was speaking after announcing that the second edition of the 1886 Trophy – a match between Surrey and an all-Parsee team – will be held here on December 1.
India are touring Australia with an experienced Parthiv Patel and rookie Rishbah Pant as their two-wicket keepers in the squad and Engineer backed the Gujarat player to play.
Asked who is better among the two, Engineer said, “Well, I would go for a youngster. Rishabh Pant has shown lot of promise in batting. Parthiv is still fit. I think the best keeper should play Test match, ODI cricket – a better batsman (can play). Rishabh is certainly my choice for ODIs but for a Test someone like Parthiv will be better, although he is 35”.