|| India Correspondent || 

Former Pakistan pace bowling great as well as the captain Wasim Akram has claimed Australia are the favourites to win the much-awaited Test series against India in December-January although he said that it is going to be a close contest between the two best of sides in world cricket.

India will play against Australia in three ODIs, as many T20Is and four Tests later this month as well. Meanwhile, the Test series will start on December 17 in Adelaide.
"I think Australia's fast bowling is the best in the world. They have Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and other top-class bowlers. It will be a close contest but I would say Australia start off as favourites," Akram said in an interview to 'Cricket Baaz' channel on Youtube.

The former speedster also said that the competition would be intense because of India's strong fast-bowling unit which will be led by the lethal Jasprit Bumrah. He also praised Mohammad Shami, Bumrah, Navdeep Saini and others too.

"Indian team has got a lot of confidence. Their body language has changed. As a team they have confidence in themselves just like when we used to enter the ground in the 90s,” he shared. “Their body language shows they believe in themselves and the hard work they are putting in. I would say 'Indian players thode badmash ho gaye hai'."

While many of the Indian players are playing in the ongoing Indian Premier League, they will leaves for Australia right after the IPL concludes in the UAE.

Notably, India won the Test series by 2-1 when they travelled to Australia in 2018 but that team didn’t feature Steve Smith and David Warner because of their involvement in the ball-tampering scandal and ban.

"When the Kookaburra ball gets old you have to think about how to keep runs down as the wickets are tough to come by," he further shared.