Former Indian Test star Erapalli Prasanna said today that the Indian cricket team was as strong as the Australians and an interesting duel is on the cards when the two clash in three Test matches and five one-dayers on their 54-day tour of India.

Prasanna, who is in Mumbai to play for the Cricket Club of India (CCI) Invitation XI vs Izingari (the oldest club in England) in a friendly match, told PTI that "our team is definitely not weak compared to the Australians and we (India) have a good chance of winning both the Test series as well as the one-day series." He added "I personally feel that the present Indian team is quite strong despite the absence of leg spinner Anil Kumble (who is recuperating from a shoulder operation)."

The Karnataka stalwart, who claimed 26 wickets in five Tests against the Australians at home in 1969-70, said he would like to see Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly come in at number three in the batting order. Prasanna said "I think a left hander has to come in early to counter attack as our past success against the Aussies revolved around the batting which gave our spinners enough runs on the board to do their job," adding "even in the 1969-70 series, we had another left hander, Ajit Wadekar, coming in at number three position."

Commenting on the present crop of spinners, Prasanna said that "off spinner Sarandeep Singh could develop into a good spinner for the future." He added that Sarandeep's entry into Test cricket in the Nagpur Test against Zimbabwe has been interesting and I hope he does well against the Aussies as well. I spent about ten days with him at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore and I am glad that it has paid off to some extent."

Prasanna, along with Bishen Bedi and Srinivasan Venkataraghavan played for the CCI XI while another former great Bhagawat Chandrashekar watched the match from the sidelines because of a foot injury caused by a serious road accident ten years ago. Chandrashekar said he was happy to be at Brabourne Stadium, scene of many of his great bowling feats. "Though it is difficult to predict the outcome of the India vs Australia series I would not call the Indians as underdogs", he added.

On the Australian side's chances, Chandra said "The Australians may have won 15 Tests in a row and we may have a great record at home but the one who plays well on the day will finally triumph", and added that the decline of quality spinners in the country was part of a cycle and it was just a matter of time before India produced quality spinners again.

© PTI