Sourav Ganguly's emphatic declaration on India's preparation for Border-Gavaskar Trophy: How did that question even arise?

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has dismissed concerns about the team's readiness for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia. Despite India's impressive track record in the tournament, including back-to-back wins in Australia, there have been heightened tensions leading up to the five-match Test series starting Friday. This tension has been amplified by India's recent 3-0 loss to New Zealand at home and a few injury setbacks ahead of the first Test in Perth.

“Undercooked is a term used when you haven't played any Test cricket at all. They have just played five Tests in last seven weeks so how does the question even arise?” Ganguly is quoted as saying by PTI. Much of the worries over India's batters, in particular, possibly not being prepared enough stems from their abject failure against the Kiwi spinners at home.

Ganguly, however, feels that the defeat to New Zealand won't have much of an effect on India during he series in Australia. "I can understand that the defeat against New Zealand was unexpected but you have to understand we played on some extremely difficult tracks. In Australia, the tracks will be good for batting," Ganguly said.

The 52-year-old, who captained India 49 Tests between 2000 and 2005, further said that while he doesn't think there will be any mental impact of the series defeat, India should get back to playing on good pitches at home. "We should stop this habit of playing on rank turners. The batsmen lose confidence on such tracks and we have a team which can win Test matches on good tracks.

"Also on turners, you need to learn to grind before you can attack. There are two types of tracks where you can't just hit through the line and get out of trouble. One is a seaming track and other being a rank turner," he said.