Dean Jones compares current Indian side to West Indies of 80s

01/21/2019

After India registered its first bilateral ODI series win in Australia, Dean Jones has stated that the current team is no different than the Windies of the 80s and the early 90s. He has also mentioned that all the players in the side played a part in the “greatest tour India ever had to Australia”.

Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, India scripted history Down Under by registering series wins in both the Test and the ODI series after the T20I series ended in a 1-1 draw. While it was the first series win by any of the Asian teams in Australia, Kohli led India to the first ever bilateral one-day series win Down Under. Seeing the performance of the current Indian side, former Aussie batsman Dean Jones has compared it with the dangerous West Indies team of the 1980s and early 90s when they had a scare factor as a team in world cricket.

"India now are no different to what the West Indies were in the eighties and early nineties. They have got to maintain the reputation that they can win in anyone's backyard now and must not take the foot off the pedal. The Windies were brilliant at it and had that "scare factor", which is what India have now," Jones wrote in his column for the Times of India.

"This was the greatest tour that India has ever had to Australia. The only blemish was probably the way they played in the Test match in Perth, but overall the great thing was that a lot of the boys played good overseas. Everyone did something on the tour to contribute."

While players like Cheteshwar Pujara, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammad Shami starred for India in the Tests, it was the turn for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal and former skipper MS Dhoni to perform in the ODIs. Kohli was good in both the formats of the game scoring one hundred each in Tests and ODIs. Jones lauded the team for staying together and performing together to script history.

"The emergence of Chahal on his first outing Down Under was awesome, while Kuldeep Yadav continues to impress and had a wonderful ODI series. He showed everyone why he's so good. Shami worked long and hard in the Tests and then backed that up with another superb ODI series. Sharma was brilliant in the one-dayers too, while Virat Kohli lead magnificently right through," Jones wrote.

Rishabh Pant had performed well in the Tests but with Dhoni getting back to the team for the ODIs, he had to sit out of the team. Jones also raised a concern about Pant and his role in the team.

"The main 'problem' is Dhoni. He's back in this team and the question is will India, if push comes to shove, play Rishabh Pant as just a batsman? India couldn't be having a better journey for their World Cup campaign than what they are having now and they have got to make sure they finish off New Zealand as well. What would be the worst thing to ruin this would be to go out to against the Black Caps and drop their guard,”

The Indian team is currently in New Zealand for a five-match ODI and a three-match T20I series.

Dean Jones compares current Indian side to West Indies of 80s

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