Pakistan are best team to beat India in India currently, they know Indian conditions quite well: Brad Hogg

Former Australia chinaman bowler Brad Hogg has again talked about an India-Pakistan series and this time around have told that Pakistan are capable of beating India in their own backyard.

Brad Hogg, said that Pakistan have got all the required ammunitions to demolish India in India. The 49-year-old added that Pakistan’s strong pace attack, good spinners and depth in batting would aide them in their victory march in India.

“Well I think the best team at the moment would be Pakistan because they have got a very strong pace unit and have got some good spinners. They also got depth in their batting and know the Indian conditions quite well,” Brad Hogg said on his YouTube channel while answering a fan question.

However, Brad Hogg realised that Pakistan team would not be able to travel to India because of “government reasons” and therefore selected Australia as the “next best team” to beat India on the Indian soils. Hogg, who played 123 ODIs and 7 Tests for Australia, said the Kangaroos were currently having their best chances of winning a Test series in India.

Brad Hogg opined that Australia with its potent bowling line-up and batsmen like David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith have a golden chance to seal a victory in India.

“But they can’t go over there for government reasons, so the next best team is Australia and I am not being biased. We have got the likes of [David] Warner, [Marnus] Labuschagne and Steve Smith. We have got a very potent batting line-up as well as bowling line-up. I think if there is any chance of us beating India on Indian soil right now, it’s going to be over the next couple of years,” Hogg said.

Notably, Australia last won a Test series on Indian soil in 2004, whereas arch-rivals Pakistan won a Test series of 2 or more matches in 1987.

Earlier, Brad Hogg had rooted for a 4-match Test series between India and Pakistan. He had told that fans were starving for a India-Pakistan series. Hogg had told that pandemic has opened the door for the ultimate cricket rebirth.

“Firstly scrap this summer’s India against Australia five-match series and have the Ashes played instead,” he said.

“But where does that leave India? They will play Pakistan in a four-match Test series, with two matches in India and other two in Pakistan, over the Christmas period. We have not seen it for a while and the public is starving for it,” Hogg had told.

The former Kolkata Knight Riders player had added that the series would also help find out the better batsman between Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. He had also painted pictures of the battles between the Indian and Pakistani bowlers as well.

“There are many reasons for it. Firstly, [Virat] Kohli and Babar Azam, who is the best out of those two? Well, that will be proven in this series,” he said.

“Then you have got (Jasprit) Bumrah against (Shaheen Shah) Afridi, which means quality bowling attack and then the spinners, Ravichandran (Ashwin) versus (Yasir) Shah and it’s all in Asian conditions. Brilliant stuff, let’s have it!” Brad Hogg had said.