India is as strong as the Australian team: Prasanna

Former Indian Test star Erapalli Prasanna said on Friday that the Indian cricket team was as strong as the Australians and an interesting duel is on the cards when the two clash in three Test matches and five one-dayers on their 54-day tour of India.

Prasanna, who is here to play for the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Invitation Eleven vs Izingari (the oldest club in England) in a friendly match, said that our team is definitely not weak compared to the Australians and India has a good chance of winning both the Test series as well as the one-day series.

"I personally feel that the present Indian team is quite strong despite the absence of leg spinner Anil Kumble (who is recuperating from a shoulder operation)", Prasanna added.

The Karnataka stalwart, who claimed 26 wickets against the Aussies at home in 1969-70, said he would like to see Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly come in at number three in the batting order.

"I think a left hander has to come in early to counter attack as our past success against the Aussies revolved around the batting which gave our spinners enough runs on the board to do their job".

"Even in 1969-70 series we had had another left hander, Ajit Wadekar, coming in at number three position" he said.

"Off spinner Sharandeep Singh could develop into a good spinner for the future", Prasanna said.

"Sharandeep's entry into Test cricket (Nagpur Test against Zimbabwe) has been interesting and I hope he does well against the Aussies as well. I spent about ten days with him at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and I am glad that it has paid off to some extent," Prasanna said.

Prasanna along with Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasan Venkataraghavan played for the CCI Eleven while another former great Bhagawat Chandrashekar watched the match from the sidelines because of a foot injury caused by a serious road accident ten years ago.

Chandrashekar said he was happy to be at Brabourne Stadium, where he bowled the Indian team to victory against Tony Lewis' Englishmen in the last Test ever played here in 1972-73. "Though it is difficult to predict the outcome of the India vs Australia series I would not call the Indians as underdogs," he added.

Chandrashekar said the decline of quality spinners in the country was part of a cycle and it was just a matter of time before India produced quality spinners again.

"Australians may have won 15 Tests in a row and we may have a great record at home but the one who plays well on the day will finally triumph".

Mail Cricket Editor