India vs Australia: ‘A Test series can never be won by luck,’ Kuldeep Yadav says criticism of India’s 2018 win Down Under ‘holds no merit’

It was a historic moment in January 2018 when led by Virat Kohli, the Indian cricket team won their first-ever series against Australia. Kohli & co. were seen celebrating in Sydney after the 4th Test went to a draw – sealing the series in their favour 2-1. It was a hard-fought battle, but the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner (who were completing their 12-month ban for the ball-tampering incident) left Aussies’ batting-order struggling to match up with India’s potent pace attack led by Jasprit Bumrah.

But after the series win, questions started looming around whether India could have won the series had Smith and Warner were a part of the Australia team. Some critics even called India’s win as luck.

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“A Test series can never be won by luck,” India left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav said in an interview on kkr.in when asked about the criticism on India’s 2018 Test series win. India are set to play a four-match Test series against Australia starting December 17th in which both Smith and Warner are expected to play a crucial role, despite the latter missing the first Test due to groin injury.

“You need to win Test matches to win a series. We won two of them, and could have one the fourth one too had there been no rain. The criticism holds no merit,”Kuldeep, who is part of India’s 15-man squad said.

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“Whenever you are playing against a team, your own team’s performance matters the most. So instead of looking at the other team – who they have in their squad, and who they don’t – it makes more sense to talk about your own team,” he added.

“We did well, and hence we won the Test series. If our fast bowling works well and we perform as prolifically with the bat as we did the last time, we will win this time too,” Kuldeep further said.

India and Australia will play the first Test which will be a pink-ball encounter in Adelaide starting from Thursday next week.