Steve Waugh: “Australia’s attack is potentially an all-time great attack”

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Former Australia captain Steve Waugh believes that the Baggy Greens have the best bowling line-up in the world.

Waugh’s comments come ahead of Australia’s four-Test series against South Africa, which will get underway on March 1 in Durban.

Both teams will be coming into the series on a high as Australia thrashed England 4-0 in the Ashes, while South Africa beat India 2-1 in their recent three-Test series.

However, while both teams have extremely talented bowlers, Waugh feels that Australia have the upper hand, especially given how Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon worked as a cohesive unit to dismantle England over and over again.

In the Ashes, Cummins was the highest wicket-taker with 23 victims, while Starc took 22 and Hazlewood and Lyon claimed 21 wickets apiece.

“Australia’s attack is potentially an all-time great attack,” Waugh was quoted as saying by Sport24. “The three quicks – Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood – and Nathan Lyon are as good as any attack right now or in any previous era. They’re only going to get better.”

With the quartet having shown the havoc they can wreak, Waugh pointed out that keeping them fit will be one of Australia’s top priorities.

“If we keep our top attack on the park in those four, then we’re going to be very hard to beat,” he said. “But if you get a couple of injuries and you take one or two of those bowlers out, it’s a different story. Burt right now I think our attack is the best in world cricket.”

Given that the bowlers are expected to excel to have a field day throughout the series, Waugh admitted that whichever side puts up a better performance with the bat will come out on top.

“These are two of the best bowling attacks in the world coming together,” he said. “It’s up to the batters … whichever batting unit performs better will win the series because both bowling attacks are pretty potent and capable of taking 20 wickets.”