Steve Waugh calls Ganguly 'optimistic' over his 4-0 remarks

The Indian team has been on a rampaging form at home in the recent times. They convincingly beat Bangladesh in the recently concluded one-off Test at Hyderabad. As the skipper Virat Kohli rightly cited, the entire focus of the team has now shifted to the Australia series. Australia are scheduled to play 4 Tests on their tour to India that commences on February 23 at Pune. Their recent track record in India has been poor. They were whitewashed when they last toured India. In general, their record in the subcontinent has been dismal.

They were drubbed 0-3 by Sri Lanka last year and prior to that, they were beaten by Pakistan in the UAE. Amidst all these stats, the former cricketers have started off the war of words. This is certainly building up the hype to the series. Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly had recently mentioned that he will not be startled to see a 4-0 scoreline in the Australia series in the favor of the hosts. Given the form of the team India, Ganguly believes that the team has the potential to whitewash the visitors.

Taking a shoot down at Ganguly’s remarks, former Australian skipper Steve Waugh has come up with his remarks on the same note. He called Ganguly a little too “optimistic” for the comments. He said that the Aussies are a competitive unit and hence cannot be written off.

“It will be foolish to write off Australia. I have known this Australian team and they can spring a few surprises. They have some match-winners in the team and I think Sourav is a bit optimistic … anything can happen. May be he is right, but I will love to challenge Sourav on that part. Certainly, Australia won’t be going to India thinking that they will lose four nil,” quoted Steve Waugh.

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He further noted that for Australia to succeed in the series, the seniors will have to step up to the occasion. He rightly remarked David Warner as a key player on the tour.

“We have a few surprises in the team, but it will be the senior players who have to take the responsibility, first up. “We have a few surprises in the team, but it will be the senior players who have to take the responsibility, first up,” conceded Steve Waugh.