There's no doubt about the potency of Australian pace attack and none can know that better than Indians who faced the wrath of their speedsters in the Adelaide Test; getting bundled out for shambolic 36. To rub further salt on the wounds, 81 deliveries is all that took from three pacers to bring down the pride of Indian batsmen, who carried a big name behind them.
Such ferocious spell has already trigerred the debate over Oz taking the series 4-0 with India left in a spot of bother with Mohammed Shami out for the rest of the matches with a wrist injury.
Australian batting great Greg Chappell has reckoned that Australians surely have the edge over their Indian counterparts due to the venom in their pace attack. The 72-year-old former Indian coach both the sides are evenly matched but its Australian pacers ability to bring bounce along with the pace that gives them bit extra. Greg went on to add that pacer Pat Cummins even reminds him of bowling great Dennis Lillee.
"When two teams are evenly matched, it will be the team that has the bouncier pace attack that will triumph in Australia. Variety is another box this group ticks - Cummins is Lillee-like in his aggression and control. He angles the ball into the right-handers, across the lefties, and rarely wastes a short ball, as they are always threatening the body," Chappell wrote in his column for Sydney Morning Herald.
He also reserved praises for Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
"Hazlewood takes the ball away from right-handers and is McGrath-like with his metronomic line and length. Parsimonious in attitude, he detests leaking runs.
"Starc is undoubtedly the team's 'Jaffa' merchant and enforcer. Reminiscent of Mitchell Johnson in his prime, he harasses the top order and menaces the tail. His control of the three lengths, when on song, is unsettling for right- and left-handers," he wrote.
Chappell further wrote that it's Nathan Lyon who makes the bowling attack formidable.
"Some of the great West Indies attacks of the 70s and 80s - Roberts, Holding, Garner and Croft or Marshall, Ambrose and Walsh -would be hard to beat from the sustained pace and hostility aspect, but they didn’t have a specialist spin bowler at all, let alone one of the quality of Nathan Lyon," he wrote.
