Australia look like a huge mountain to climb: Sunil Gavaskar after India's whitewash against New Zealand

After a 0-3 drubbing, India's chances to qualify for the World Test Championship final look grim as anything other than a big victory in Australia would deny Rohit Sharma's men an air ticket to London, where the closing contest will be played.

Cricket legend and commentator Sunil Gavaskar feels India's next assignment in Australia will be a massive task to conquer.

In his column on Sportstar, Gavaskar said, "Australia looks like a huge mountain to climb after the Indian team stumbled terribly on a speed bump called New Zealand. Nobody, not even the Kiwis themselves, would have thought of a clean sweep against India, and that too in India.

"It has happened thanks to the short-gain policy of preparing pitches for our spinners when just about everybody in the cricketing world agrees that we have the best new-ball bowler in the world across all formats."

Gavaskar, however, feels India can bring out a different outcome in Australia where the ball will come onto bat, provided they get adequate preparations.

He has lashed out at the decision to call off the warm-up matches, which he feels will yield benefits to youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan who are touring Australia for the first time.

Gavaskar says, "Australia can be salvaged because the pitches there are beautiful to bat on after the first dozen overs or so, after which the ball hardly deviates off the surface. To do that, though, the team needs to play a bit more on those kinds of pitches. Instead, we are now told that the warm-up game before the first Test has been called off.

"Wouldn’t it benefit youngsters like (Yashasvi) Jaiswal and Sarfaraz (Khan), who are playing on Australian pitches for the first time, to get some runs under their belt and get a feel of what the pitches will be like?"

The cricket great added, "And if they get out early, they can still get into the nets and practice against the throwdown specialist or the net bowlers. For bowlers like Akash Deep and Harshit Rana too, it’s essential to know the best length to bowl in Australia, as it’s different from India, and the best learning is in a proper match and not just net practice."

The five-match Test series between Australia and India, who are placed at number 1 and 2 in the WTC ranking respectively, will begin in Perth on December 22.