India’s chances of winning in Australia will depend on batters: John Buchanan

Mumbai, Aug 29: Former Australia coach John Buchanan believes India's chances of completing a hat-trick of Test series wins Down Under will hinge on how the visiting batters, including "ageing" stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, tackle the hosts' battery of pace bowlers.

For the first time since 1991-92, India will tour Australia for a five-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the opening game scheduled to be played at Perth from November 22.

Buchanan, who presided over Australia's golden run in all forms in the first decade of this millennium as head coach, said both India and Australia have plenty of ageing players at disposal but that will not be a deterrent to the competition between the sides.

"Australia (has), since losing to India in the last series, the pace bowling attack with (off-spinner Nathan) Lyon, backed up now by Cameron Green or Mitch Marsh, is just a really, really powerful bowling lineup," Buchanan told PTI on Thursday after the launch of 'Ready Steady Go Kids' multi-sport program for the CP Goenka International School.

"India's top order, (Yashasvi) Jaiswal, (Rohit) Sharma himself, (Virat) Kohli, possibly Iyer… they've got to bat really well to establish totals and then the likes of (Jasprit) Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami, (Mohammed) Siraj will come into their own," he said.

Buchanan said there won't be much of a psychological impact of India's wins in Australia on the previous two tours given that two of the mainstays then — Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane — are not likely to be a part of the touring squad for the upcoming series.

"The previous series that India won — important from both, Indian perspective and an Australian perspective — a little bit of the mind games will go into the pre-series," he said.