Bangladesh have the edge over Australia: Dean Jones

The fact that rankings are not the proper metrics to judge a team is validated by former cricketer Dean Jones’ assertion that hosts Bangladesh have the edge over Australia in the first Test at Mirpur, despite the latter’s superior ranking. Jones drew a comparison with the England series where the hosts outwitted the English team in the second Test to save the series and win their maiden Test against them.

Bangladesh also went on to crush Sri Lanka, who had earlier defeated Australia away from home. He also expressed concern about Australia’s performance in the sub-continent, saying they need to improve their track record. Keeping all that in mind, he added that the subcontinental outfit will be favourites in the first Test.

Bangladesh favourites

“(Bangladesh) might have been under-performers until a couple of years ago but they are a real deal now, especially in their own backyard. They have to start favourites … look at the way they knocked off England last year. Then they just beat Sri Lanka a few months ago, and we all know how (Australia) went in Sri Lanka (0-3 loss) last year – so that tells you something,” Jones told The New Daily.

He believes that even though the Aussies were fairly good competitors against India who were termed invincible during their long home season, and did manage to tackle the spin threat to a certain extent, Bangladesh are a different challenge altogether. They have been practising on used pitches to counter the attack, but the scoreboard for Day 1 of the Test suggests otherwise.

“We improved, but we didn’t win the series. We still lost two Test matches. They might have worked out a method against India, but this is a different challenge. Bangladesh has some high-quality spinners that will pose problems for Australian batsmen. If our guys get into the mind-set that we went well in India, so we should be able to handle Bangladesh, then they will be in big trouble,” Jones said about Australia’s performance in Asia.