‘India in for brutal summer in Australia’

Published August 23, 2014
Australian pacer Ryan Harris. — Photo by AFP
Australian pacer Ryan Harris. — Photo by AFP

MELBOURNE: India’s tour of Australia might be more than three months away but mind games have already started with pacer Ryan Harris saying his team will not tone down their aggression and the Indians may face a brutal summer from Mitchell Johnson and Company in the series in December.

Harris has declared that the Australians would seek to extend India’s woeful away-from-home record when they kickstart the four-match series on Dec 4.

“The Indians don’t go so well outside their own conditions so when we get them in our conditions, because they always give it to us in their backyard, we like giving it back to them. With Mitch the way he is going, he is on fire, he’s only going to get better,” Harris was quoted as saying by ‘The Age’.

Harris said he has taken careful note of India’s top player Virat Kohli’s problems with the bat, given he was India’s best batsman in Australia four summers ago.

In England, he did not make a half-century and averaged 13.4 in five Tests. “He is obviously going to do a lot of work between now and then, but you’ve just got to try to get him driving. He nicked a lot in England series,” observed Harris.

When reminded that too much aggression from the Aussies could result in soured relations with the Indian cricket board (BCCI), Harris said it was up to the ICC to mind that.

“The ICC are the governing body and they are the ones who have got to be making the decisions...If India are not happy with that then they’ve got to sort that out. We go by our coach, our captain and above them Cricket Australia and the ICC,” said Harris.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2014

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