“The Sri Lankan team wasn’t a very strong team and that’s only fair but this Australian team is an experienced team. Probably not the same kind of batting line-up as (Matthew) Hayden, (Adam) Gilchrist or (Ricky) Ponting, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey were there but I think this is a very good Australian team,” he said.
“The Australians never give up and I think, what they are missing at the moment is one more batsman who can make a difference and they are missing one more bowler. But as far as India is concerned, they are not choosing the team that takes the field against them,” Gavaskar added.
“They are just playing against them. And as Virat Kohli said, they are going to be ruthless and they are going to be relentless, they are going to be pursuing victory in every game and the fact that in all three games they were put under pressure, which never happened apart from one game in Sri Lanka, when Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took them home, over here in all three games they were put under some sort of pressure but to come through that pressure and go on to win easily is the hallmark of a great team, a champion team,” the former Indian cricketer said.
Talking about Australia, Gavaskar insisted that the Steven Smith-led team is lacking an additional batsman as well as a bowler.
“As said earlier, they are not having the same kind of depth that they had earlier in their batting and that is where they are missing out on a batsman coming in at No 5 or 6 who can come in and make the difference. They have got top two three batsman. After that what? If those three batsmen, Warner, Aaron Finch and Steven Smith, don’t score runs then they are struggling,” he said.
Gavaskar also pointed fingers at Glenn Maxwell, whose lack of runs have hurt Australia in this series. “They don’t seem to have a batsman at the moment who can play the big innings, who can play the defining innings, who can play the impact innings,” he said.
Gavaskar explained, “Yes, Maxwell will come and hit the odd boundary, maybe he will score runs in 10-15 innings but he is not what you call a dependable player at 5 or 6. So that is something that the Australians are lacking. Because earlier on, they had Mike Hussey batting at 5 or 6 and who would take them to a big total. They had Michael Bevan at 5 or 6 who would take them to a big total. So that is what they are missing out on.”
With the series already lost, Australia will look to salvage pride in the remaining ODIs. The fourth game will be played in Bengaluru on Thursday, September 28 at Bengaluru, whereas the fifth and final ODI will be at Nagpur on October 1.