England’s veteran pacer Stuart Broad in his column for Daily Mail wrote that India’s confidence in the series will be “sky high” after their brilliant series win Down Under and England should not build India up in their minds.
Despite losing their star players to injuries, India under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane hammered Australia in their backyard. Their memorable 2-1 series win included Gabba fortress breach where the tourists defeated the hosts and chased down a 328-run target on the final day.
“This is not an easy place to tour, and India’s confidence will be sky high from winning at the Gabba to complete a series victory in Australia earlier this month,” Broad wrote.
“I can tell you that they had supporters within this England team throughout that decisive match in Brisbane. The togetherness, the character, spirit and willingness they showed was phenomenal. Any team in the world would have been proud of what India achieved despite being depleted by injuries,” he added.
After the Border-Gavaskar win they got placed at the top slot in the ICC Test Championship points table.
“They are the World Test Championship leaders for good reason. But we have moved from being admirers to their enemy within a couple of weeks and what we cannot do is build India up in our minds. They are not impregnable,” Broad said.
Broad, 34, also lauded Virat Kohli and called him the best batsman.
“Virat Kohli is one of the best I’ve ever seen but if we go through all their positives we will be defeated before we’ve even begun. We need to build on our own strengths. We are entering the series in great form ourselves,” said Broad while highlighting England’s recent 2-0 Test series win in Sri Lanka,” said Broad.
“We’ve got batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders in the top 10 of the world rankings. Yes, India are a brilliant side, and it would be one of the most remarkable series victories if we were able to pull it off, but we know if we get our mindset right we can beat anyone,” he concluded.
