‘Australia were without Smith and Warner’: Waqar Younis on Team India’s series win in 2018/19

Waqar Younis believes Australia were going though a tough time and that played a role in India’s historic victory. He referred to India as a very good side but insisted the absence of star players did make a difference in the series

Former Pakistan speedster Waqar Younis feels India managed to win a Test series in Australia because the hosts were missing stalwarts David Warner and Steve Smith. India won their first-ever Test series Down Under by beating Tim Paine’s troops 2-1 in the five-match series.

Waqar Younis (REUTERS)

Warner and Smith were serving suspensions for their respective roles in the infamous ball-tampering scandal in South Africa. The duo were banned for one each other while Cameron Bancroft was handed a nine-month suspension.

Waqar believes Australia were going though a tough time and that played a role in India’s historic victory. He referred to India as a very good side but insisted the absence of star players did make a difference in the series.

“I am not trying to take away any credit from India, they played well and they are a very good side. But yes at same time when they won in Australia, there is no doubt that Australian cricket was going through a turmoil and there were problems in their dressing room. And they were without Steve Smith and David Warner,” Waqar said during a video conference.

Australia Test captain Tim Paine, meanwhile, also believes India will face a different opposition when they touchdown in the country later this year.

“This is a different team, no doubt their team will be slightly different as well, but it’s two high quality teams, a really anticipated series purely because of the quality of cricket, not for what’s happened before. India and Australia as a rivalry, it’s a series a bit like the Ashes that we all look forward to,” Paine was quoted as saying by ‘Cricbuzz’.

“I think you put in 15,000 Test runs with two guys alone, Steve Smith and David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne’s come on in leaps and bounds and he’s now a top three or four batsman in the world himself.”

“You put that amount of runs into a cricket side, last time we didn’t have ... we know how good India’s bowling line-up is and last time we just weren’t quite good enough if we’re totally honest against that attack, whereas this time I think we’ll be a different kettle of fish. We’ve got three of the best batsmen in the world in our top six,” the captain said.