Batting legend Mahela Jayawardene believes Australia have a chance of beating India in their own backyard in the four-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy series, which begins in Nagpur from Thursday.
While Australia hasn't won a Test series in India since 2004, Jayawardena believes the visitors have a strong bowling attack which should prove a tough challenge for the Indian batters.
"I think it's always going to be a great series. I think Indian conditions and how the Australian batsmen tackle that, they do have a really good bowling unit and how do the Indian batsmen tackle that ... it depends on how each team starts the series and who's got that momentum but it will be fascinating," Mahela Jayawardene said in the latest edition of the ICC Review.
"It's difficult to predict, but being a Sri Lankan, I'm hoping that Australia can go all the way. Probably a 2-1 win for Australia, but it's going to be a tough one," he added.
Jayawardene also hailed the young Shubman Gill, who has enjoyed a dream run with the bat in white ball cricket in the last few months. The former Sri Lanka opener believes that Gill has a sound technique and is good against fast bowling, the key requisites for a batter in Test cricket.
"He's been very good, he's technically very sound and he's a good player of pace. That will keep him in good stead against that Australian attack, but it's always going to be tough and it will be a very good series," the Sri Lankan said of Gill.
"He is in great form at the moment and if he converts that into red-ball cricket and have that tempo, maturity, and understanding of the situations and conditions, he'd be a great asset at the top of the line-up for India. He does give them those good starts at a good tempo to put opposition bowling attacks under pressure," he added.
