"Scoreline will be 2-1 to Australia" - JP Duminy predicts Australia to win Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023

David Warner and Steve Smith getting a feel of Nagpur pitch (P.C.:cricket.com.au)
David Warner (L) and Steve Smith getting a feel of the Nagpur pitch (P.C.:cricket.com.au)

Former South African all-rounder JP Duminy has claimed that Australia have a great chance of winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series with a scoreline of 2-1.

The visitors, under Pat Cummins' leadership, won a historic Test series in Pakistan and Duminy feels they have all the tools necessary to be successful in Indian conditions.

In a press conference arranged by SA20 for a select group of journalists, here's what JP Duminy predicted about the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy:

"I feel the scoreline will be 2-1 to Australia. Player of the series will be Usman Khawaja."

Duminy feels that the deeper the Test matches go, Australia's chances of winning will be greater as they have shown great adaptability to different conditions. However, he also feels Ravichandran Ashwin could be a major threat to the visitors.

On this, he said:

"I genuinely feel that Australia stands a good chance in this Test series. They have certainly been the team to beat. It will depend on conditions but if it's pretty balanced with an opportunity for the Test to go further than 3-4 days, I think Australia stands a good chance.
"But you can never write off India. Ashwin has a prolific record in India and he is going to be key for them. I feel this will be a close-knit series."

JP Duminy on the pitch debate

There has been a lot of talk about the kind of pitch that India could offer Australia in the Test series. While some former cricketers like Ian Healy believe that giving a rank-turner is 'unfair', JP Duminy feels world-class teams have to adjust to different conditions around the globe.

On this, he stated:

"That’s the beauty of playing a home series, you have the conditions to your advantage. So it would be silly to think that you wouldn’t want to utilize them in your favor. Whenever you travel to the subcontinent, you will face these conditions and you will need to be prepared for that.
"If you want to be the best in the world, you’re gonna have to be able to perform in all conditions."

It will be interesting to see what kind of pitch the hosts dish out when the first Test gets underway in Nagpur on Thursday.

Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️

Quick Links