Australia red-ball skipper Tim Paine has little doubt that India will trump New Zealand comfortably to emerge victorious within the inaugural World Test Championship remaining.
World’s top-two Test groups will battle it out for the title on the Ageas Bowl in Southampton from June 18.
“My prediction is, India will win pretty comfortably if they play anywhere near their best,” Paine stated at a press convention in Brisbane.
Paine had captained Australia in opposition to each New Zealand and India.
While Australia beat the Kiwis 3-0 at dwelling in 2019, they suffered a 1-2 defeat in opposition to India when Virat Kohli’s facet travelled Down Under in early 2020.
New Zealand are coming into the match well-prepared, following their 1-0 series-win over hosts England however for Paine, it received’t rely for a lot as he believes the win got here in opposition to a depleted dwelling facet.
England didn’t have all-rounders Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali of their line-up other than lacking Jos Buttler, pacer Jofra Archer and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.
It’s a truth which makes him imagine that the Ashes sequence later in the summertime could be an altogether completely different ball sport.
“I think New Zealand are a good team, for one, and secondly if we’re being realistic I think it’s a really different team that we saw England out on the field to what we’re probably going to see in the Ashes keeping it in perspective it certainly wasn’t England’s strongest team,” he stated.
