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Former Australia captain Ian Chappell feels fragile batting lineups of both India and Australia have made the ongoing Test series 'enthralling'. He looks forward to a great battle if both teams reach the ICC World Test Championship final.
The ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been a see-saw battle, even with an injury-ravaged Indian team.
Ian Chappell praised the visitors' resilience and their fighting spirit, but said that neither team had established authority over each other.
"The fragility of both teams' batting has contributed greatly to the enthralling nature of the series. A collapse seems never far from happening, and consequently, neither team has been able to establish absolute authority. The resilience and fight shown by India has been matched by the class of the Australian attack and their never-say-die attitude," Chappell wrote in his column for ESPNCricinfo.
Ian Chappell also seemed excited at the prospect of both teams battling it out in the ICC World Test Championship final. He wrote:
"If these two teams reach the final of the World Test Championship and they are both at full-strength, it should be one of the great winner-take-all battles."
The 77-year-old feels a fit Hardik Pandya will bring a lot of balance to the Indian team.
"To round out India's best side - one that will provide a real challenge if they reach the World Test Championship final - they need Hardik Pandya at full fitness. His all-round presence gives India more selection options in order to take advantage of their blossoming and versatile attack." Chappell added.
India no longer best players of spin: Ian Chappell
The Indian Cricket team is generally considered as best player of spin bowling. But Ian Chappell feels the current crop of players are not better than the rest of the world. The Australian wrote:
"First and foremost it's no longer correct to say Indian batsmen are the best players of spin bowling. They may not be worse than some others, but they're definitely not better than the rest overall. There have been times in this series when they certainly were not smart players of spin bowling. In the first innings at the SCG, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara were classic examples. They both plodded forward in defence to ball after ball from Nathan Lyon, which is not only lazy footwork but is also asking for trouble. Neither was dismissed by Lyon, but it was more good fortune than sound footwork."
Australia (1) and India (2) are currently the top two teams on the ICC World Test Championship table. The top two teams at the end of league stage will battle it out for the Test Champions title in Lord's later this year.
New Zealand is also in the running for the final as it's just a few decimal points behind India.
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