Virender Sehwag says India will whitewash Australia 5-0

What's the story?

Former Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag believes that India will whitewash Australia 5-0 in the ongoing ODI series. The 38-year-old also believes that the current Indian side is as strong as the Australian teams captained by Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting but admitted that the middle-order needs to be looked at ahead of the third ODI at Indore.

"Team India presently seems to be as strong as Steve Waugh's or Ricky Ponting's Australian teams. The present Australian team lacks strength. I am confident Team India will win the series 5-0," Sehwag said.

Before adding, that the Australian team does not have good bowlers "except Nathan Coulter-Nile" and that the major threat with the bat are Steve Smith, David Warner and Glenn Maxwell. However, he did say that India's middle-order is a slight concern.

"The middle-order did not perform well in the first two ODIs, and captain Kohli needs to change the batting order. Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav should take advantage of the chances given to them, otherwise both have been flops till now," he added.

In case you didn't know...

India won the first ODI in Chennai by 26 runs thanks to Hardik Pandya's all-round effort before beating the visitors by 50 runs in the second ODI at Kolkata courtesy of Virat Kohli's match-winning 92 and Kuldeep Yadav's hat-trick.

The heart of the matter

Coming into the series, India were on a nine-game winning streak across all formats and they have extended that to 11 after winning the opening two games. They will now be eyeing a series win in Indore, where the third ODI is scheduled to take place and inch closer to the No.1 ODI ranking.

What's next?

With a 2-0 lead in the series, India will be looking to clinch the ODI series at Indore, where the third ODI takes place on Sunday. Following that there will be two more ODIs, the squad for which hasn't been announced as yet before the two teams take part in a three-match T20I series.

Author's take

There is little doubt that India are on a roll right now. So far in this series, they have certainly checked all the boxes but there is still a long way to go before they can be spoken about in the same breath as the World Cup winning Australian sides under the leadership of Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting.

However, having whitewashed Sri Lanka 9-0 away from home, India have carried forward their momentum into this series and they will be looking to clinch the series on Sunday and the first step towards becoming one of the best ODI sides in the world would be to claim the No.1 ranking which they will take over should Sehwag's prediction come true.