Star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is confident of India’s performance in the upcoming five-match Test series against Australia Down Under, starting late this year. Cricket Australia recently released the schedule of their upcoming home summer, which includes the visit of India for a five-match Test series with Perth to host the opening game. The series will commence on November 22, with further Tests to be held in Adelaide (day-night), Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney right up until the start of the New Year.

It will be the first time since the summer of 1991/92 that Australia and India have played a five-match series as part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will provide both teams with a good opportunity to further cement their place in next year’s ICC World Test Championship final.

“Look, you want to stay in the contest all the time. You might not begin a series very well. You still need to be able to dig into that mental resolve to come back. The one thing I would say about Australia is that, like England, all these venues are standard venues. Like Melbourne, like Sydney. We know what to expect from there. Sometimes it can be challenging. Look, I think… this part of Indian cricket doesn’t do as well as it must in a way that we don’t welcome you to conditions that are extremely hard. That’s exactly what Australia are trying to do it. They are putting us in Perth first up. Because the change of pace is going to be different,” Ashwin said on Club Prairie Fire podcast.

“We will go into the series with the best possible intent. They are doing all it takes to start off the series. So, you never take an Australian team lightly. That’s because of the kind of experience they are going to have. Their bowling attack would probably have 500 Tests between them. We (the Indian team) might not have that sort of experience, but still I think the belief that we will take them on is going to be pretty high,” he added.