Australians seek to extend India’s woeful away-from-home record
Melbourne: India’s tour of Australia might be over three months away but mind games have already started with pacer Ryan Harris saying they will not tone down their aggression and the Indians may face a brutal summer from fellow fast bowler Mitchell Johnson.
Harris has declared that the Australians would seek to extend India’s woeful away-from-home record when they kickstart the four-match series on December 4. His remarks has come at a time when Indians are still reeling from a 3-1 drubbing at the hands of England.
"You try ... To do everything we can to unsettle them verbally, but we get it back as well. India are good at it; Jadeja is good at it, (Virat) Kohli likes it as well...If I say something wrong and get punished for it, it will be the ICC that gets me, not the BCCI," the 34-year-old pacer was quoted as saying by 'The Age'.
"Who knows what really happened over there, but the ICC are the governing body and they are the ones who have got to be making the decisions...If India are not happy with that then they’ve got to sort that out. We go by our coach, our captain and above them Cricket Australia and the ICC."
Talking about the issue, Harris said the Australians would continue to take their cues from the ICC in terms of what was acceptable, not from India.
Harris predicted another brutal summer from Mitchell Johnson.
"The Indians don’t go so well outside their own conditions so when we get them in our conditions, because they always give it to us over there, we like giving it back to them. With Mitch the way he is going, he is on fire, he’s only going to get better," said Harris.
Harris has taken careful note of Kohli's problems with the bat, given he was India’s best batsman in Australia four summers ago. In England he did not make a half-century and averaged 13.4 in five Tests.
"He is obviously going to do a lot of work between now and then, but you’ve just got to try to get him driving. He nicked a lot," Harris said.
"Virat is very good on his pads, so anything on middle and leg stump is bread and butter for him. We’ve got to make sure we keep it a little bit wider. He’s too good a player not to bounce back, hopefully he doesn’t do it too well because we don’t want him smacking hundreds against us," he said.
