Mathew Wade says India pace attack no match to Wagner's bouncer
Melbourne/UNI: Australia wicket-keeper Matthew Wade feels India's world-class pace attack will be able to match New Zealand's bouncer-bowling extraordinaire, Neil Wagner during its tour of Kangaroo nation.
Wagner dismissed Australia's three leading batsmen – Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne – a combined 10 times during Australia and New Zealand Test series last season.
India, who are set for a four-Test tour of Australia this summer. "Teams may try it but I don't think it will be as successful," Wade told cricket.com.au.
"I don't think anyone in the game has bowled bouncers the way he bowled and been so consistent, and not gotten scored off while also picking up wickets.
"I think we'll see it a bit (from India) but I don't think it will be as effective as Wagner. He's done it for a long time now … to be honest I've never faced a bowler who is so accurate at bowling bouncers," Wade added.
while Australia's top-order is far more settled than it was in '18-19, Wade expects Kohli's side to be the toughest challenge this current outfit has had to contend with.
"Everyone, although they might not admit it, is looking towards that Indian series," said Wade, who also hopes to win selection on Australia's proposed upcoming limited-overs tour of England.
"It's going to be hard work. They (India) are a fierce team. They're as hard a team as I've ever played in terms of the way they compete.
"Led by Virat, you can see the way he goes about it on the field, you can see what it means to him and he drives all those guys, they jump on the back of him. "It's going to be as big a challenge as this team has faced for the 12 months we've been together."
Kohli's men defeated the Aussies 2-1 in 2018-19 but Smith and Warner were banned for that series, while Labuschagne played just one Test.
Wade, who has also since established himself as a reliable middle-order presence, says replicating Wagner's method will be harder than it looks.
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