Australia vs India 2018-19: Why Ajinkya Rahane said that Australia are the favourites 

In the press conference before the first test at Adelaide, Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane said something that goes contrary to the way most experts have assessed the upcoming India-Australia series.

According to Rahane, it is not India, but Australia who are the favourites going into the series. He pointed out two reasons for saying so. Firstly, Australia is playing on their home grounds. He is right on that account as the number of teams winning at home (and losing abroad) has gone up exponentially in recent times.

This is especially the case when the two sides are more or less evenly matched. We found an exception to the rule recently when England whitewashed Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, an unthinkable prospect till only a few years ago when Sri Lankan spinners led by the incomparable Muttiah Muralitharan used to torment touring sides, especially the ones not from the subcontinent.

But this Sri Lankan test side is undoubtedly their worst in the last twenty years, and hence not much should be read into Sri Lanka losing a test series to England at home, as a true reflection of how touring sides have generally fared overseas in recent times.

Rahane’s second point was that the Australian side has a world class bowling attack. That also is true. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon form a terrific bowling line up that can rattle any batting line up, especially on conditions they are so familiar with.

However, there could be another reason as to why Rahane said so. It may be wrong to assume that just because Rahane said to the media that Australia is the favourites, he actually thinks so. Rahane is a thinking cricketer, and by saying that Australia is the favourites, he has played a bit of a mind game before the series.

By conferring the favourites tag on the Australians, he has cleverly deflected some of the pressure that comes from such a tag now on to the Australians. It is safe to assume that what he said is very different from what he thinks.

This Indian team believes they can come away with a series win down under for the first time. Let nobody mistake Rahane’s statement as an admission of any sort of weakness, whatsoever.

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