Gilchrist says India success in Australia hinges on psychology

Former Australia wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist believes India have the quality to beat Australia away from home but will need to overcome their psychological shortcomings.

Gilchrist believes that India failed to beat England in the Test series which concludes On September 11 at the Oval due to their mindset.

The former keeper told ESPN Cricinfo: “It is challenging playing overseas. I do believe India [have] a strong bowling unit and some quality batsmen, including the best batsman in the world, Virat Kohli.

“They have the potential to win overseas. Perhaps it is just mind, more than the body.”

In their past two assignments overseas India have competed well with South Africa and England but were unable to grasp their opportunities to seize either contest. India lost 2-1 in South Africa and are on the brink of being beaten 4-1 by England with teams that have played very well for the most part.

Gilchrist is confident that Virat Kohli will again lead from the front with the bat as he has done in South Africa and England dispelling the notion he can only perform in India.

He would caution Australia against getting stuck in with a bit of verbal on the India skipper.

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He added: “What I admire about Virat’s captaincy is his tenacity and the way he drags his team with him just by being positive.

“Perhaps, it would not be advisable for Australians to upset him because it may boomerang against them as he is world’s best batsmen at the moment.

“He looks to me like a guy who likes challenges when the chips are down … From Australia’s point of view, they do not want him to score as heavily as he is doing in England.”

After India showed their pace attack can match both England and South Africa Gilchrist is looking forward to a massive fast bowling battle.

“In England, [the Indian attack] have shown the potential to rip through the batting line-up. They’re all fit, strong and aggressive young men so those are all the virtues you need to take on Australia in Australia,” he said.

“And from an Australian perspective, we have [Mitchell] Starc, backed up by Pat Cummins, who is outstanding, and [Josh] Hazlewood is almost [Glenn] McGrath like with his methodic repetitious bowling, so there’s three guys there, and there are a couple in the wings as well.

“As the series goes on, we’re going to find out who has the better pace attack, and that is going to be the most intriguing part of the series.”