Aim is to win Test series in Australia, says Ishant

Sydney, Nov 27 (CRICKETNMORE): India's pacer Ishant Sharma on Tuesday said that the team is focused on winning the four-match Test series starting December 6 in Adelaide.

Ishant said no player is thinking about the personal performance, rather all players have one aim of winning the Test series.

"The biggest thing right now is to win the series and that's what everybody is focusing on right now. We are not even thinking about personal performances. Just one aim that is to win a series in Australia," Ishant told reporters ahead of the four-day practice match against Cricket Australia XI on Wednesday.

"Everyone is really passionate. We are pretty motivated to win the series. Not only in Australia, when we played in South Africa and England we were pretty motivated to win a series abroad and I think that is the biggest opportunity for us right now because we always have a good balance in the side which can do things for us which is very promising," he added.

Ishant said the practice match is important for the team because this match will only set the tone for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

"I think it's pretty serious for us (the practice game), because we have to set the tone. You know the conditions, obviously playing here after a long time. You need to get into the groove, get used to the conditions and I think it's a pretty important game for everyone," he said.

With pacers like Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar doing their job well, Ishant is taking this opportunity to display to make his mark.

"If you're representing the country the pressure is there, I think it's a great opportunity as well because you have a healthy competition in the team as you can see there a lot of fast bowlers coming up and if you are not doing well then any time you can sit behind and watch the game," he said.

" I think it is a great opportunity for everyone to do well in any conditions as you can see we did well in the last two tours especially in South Africa and England as well," he added.