Thaindian News

Chennai, Dec 11 (IANS) While expressing happiness over India’s 4-1 series win against the West Indies here on Sunday, stand-in captain Gautam Gambhir cautioned that the forthcoming tour of Australia would be a “different ball game” that will put to test both the technique and mental toughness of the players.

“It always helps to get runs under your belt, but in Australia, those are different conditions. We all know this is not what we are going to get in Australia. The Australians are tough nuts to crack and will come hard at us,” he said at a post-match media interaction here after India beat the West Indies in the fifth and concluding game.

“In Australia, your mental toughness will be tested the maximum. You will be getting a quality attack and they will be coming hard at you. I think one good thing is the guys that have gone early (to Australia) will be able to acclimatise (to the conditions). And we’re playing two practice games this time,” he said.

Gambhir also sought to play down his captaincy record of six wins out of six by saying that he was only as good as the teams he had.

“I’ll stick to the saying that the captain is as good as his team. One captain can’t win you the game; it is still 11 people on the park. I am lucky to have such teammates, during the series against New Zealand, I was lucky to have Yuvraj Singh. Today the team-mates stood up and delivered,” he asserted.