Peter Handscomb speaks on the prospect of winning their first Test series on Indian soil in 13 years

Australian middle-order batsman Peter Handscomb who played a match-saving innings at Ranchi said that they were overwhelmed with the prospect of winning a Test series in India after 13 long years but are not getting overawed with it. Australia lost won a Test series in India way back in 2004 under the captaincy of stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist. Speaking on the challenges that lie with facing the pressure of winning a Test series in India, Handscomb said that his team is pretty aware of what sort of challenges lies ahead for them in the final Test at Dharamsala.

During an interaction with Cricket Australia, Handscomb said, “Yeah, we’re definitely aware of Australia’s Test record in India. We know how hard it is to come over here and win the series, but I guess all we are really focusing on is the Test itself and not being too overawed by the significance of it.”

“If we can go out and just go with those same plans that we’ve had in the previous three Tests then hopefully it looks after itself and potentially create our own little bit of history,” he further added. Handscomb who played a vital role in helping Australia save the Ranchi Test said that the visitors will take a lot of confidence and mental strength going into the final and the deciding Test.

“It gives the squad a massive amount of confidence, knowing we can go in and assess the pitch as quickly as we can and then play our game from there. Obviously, we did that well in Pune and we’ve had two different types of wickets again in Bangalore and Ranchi so if we can assess the conditions as quickly as possible and go from there I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

Speaking of his batting performance in the 3rd Test Handscomb said, “I guess after that first innings we were glad that we got 450, but reflecting on the game – and we did speak about it afterwards – we did score 450 but we definitely did have a chance there to score 500-550, potentially 600, and really set the game up for ourselves.”

“But now that we have had that second innings where we batted so well, we know we can take that belief into the first innings at Dharamsala and go from there and hopefully score big first innings runs,” he further added. The final Test is scheduled to kick off on 25th March and it will be the first time a Test match will be played at Dharamsala.