Batting great Matthew Hayden feels Rishabh Pant will be a key player for India when they travel to Australia for a five-Test series later this year owing to his “muscle memory and thirst for victory” that made him such a sensation during the team’s previous tour Down Under. The eagerly-anticipated five-Test series starts on November 22 at Perth.
Speaking on the sidelines of ‘CEAT Cricket Rating Awards’ Hayden said,”Guys like Rishabh Pant have got a muscle memory and the thirst for victory. He was such a key player last time he played there and the Australian public loved him as well, because of the nature of the way he played his game,”
He added, “It was exciting. It was innovative. It was just fresh and good. Then you have got your old stewards, like Virat Kohli, (he) will want to make an impression again. From a batting point of view, I’m excited to see how India have that strategy to take on the Australian conditions,”
Pant, who has made a successful return to cricket after a life-threatening accident in 2022, was an outstanding performer for India in the 2020-21 tour, notching up brilliant knocks of 97 and 89 not out in the landmark trip.
India outgunned a full-strength Australia despite missing several frontline players in one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history Test cricket.
The visitors bounced back from the ignominy of 36 all out in the opening Adelaide Test to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 for a second consecutive time.
Pink Tests take away Australia’s home advantage
Hayden said scheduling a day-night Test tends to take away the advantage enjoyed by Australian teams in the past. Even in the upcoming tour, the two teams will play a Pink Test in Adelaide.
“Once you get those overhead conditions under that twilight zone, they can be really difficult,” he said.
“I would go as far as to say that the home advantage in Australia has been taken away quite a lot, simply on the basis that if you get (on) the wrong side of a certain session, be that you are four for 130 at twilight, you can (soon) be eight for 150.
“There’s no chance to actually really naturally dominate a game,” he added.
