Ravichandran Ashwin and his team are ready for Australia’s Perth challenge that will be thrown at India when they make a trip Down Under for the five-Test series starting November. Cricket Australia announced the schedule and venue for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with Perth’s Optus Stadium hosting the opener on November 22. India have won their last two Test series in Australia and are currently in possession of the BGT since 2017. Australia, who have historically chosen either Adelaide or Brisbane as the venue for the first Test, have made a switch and gone ahead with the ‘bouncy’ Perth to welcome India with some chin music.
However, Ashwin feels that the days of India being intimidated by pace are a thing of the past. That India have lost just two Tests out of their last eight Down Under speaks volumes about how far the team has come from their days of struggle in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2019-19, under Virat Kohli, India celebrated their first Test triumph in Australia in 71 years before Ajinkya Rahane doubled it up two years later. And this time around, as Rohit Sharma aims to make it a hat-trick, Ashwin reckons India and its batters are more than ready to tackle whatever it is that Australia is planning.
