Australia vs India Test series, the Border Gavaskar Trophy, is one of the most anticipated series this year. The cricket giants will lock horns in the five-match test series from November 22, with the first Test scheduled in Perth. India have dominated Australia in the last decade, winning four back-to-back Test series, including two series wins in Australia.
India will eye a rare hat-trick of series wins in Australia in the upcoming series, however, the road ahead won’t be easy. India will be without veterans, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who lost their place in the side after a string of poor performances. Both stalwarts were instrumental to India’s wins on previous tours, but now the onus will be on the youngsters and senior players Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and R Ashwin to lead the team to a series win.
Australia have a plethora of match-winners in the team but Travis Head has hurt India the most. The destructive Aussie scored a brilliant hundred in the WTC final and ODI World Cup final in 2023 to hand India convincing defeats. Head has been in destructive form across formats and will be one of the key players for Australia in the Test series.
India also have a plethora of good bowling options to keep the dashing left-hander in check. Ahead of the series, the Aussie stalwart named India player he enjoys his battles with and picked off-spinner R Ashwin. Head lauded Ashwin’s competitiveness and said he is at the player all the time.
“He is all over you all the time. It’s nice to play well against the best bowlers,” said Head on Star Sports.
Steve Smith also echoed Head’s sentiments and picked Ashwin as a player he enjoys his battles with. “A very good bowler, very skillful. He can bowl different balls in different ways with different seam in whatever the conditions entail. He is a quality performer and has been for a very long time,” Smith said.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Statc was also asked to name the player and he had no hesitation in taking Virat Kohli’s name. Starc and Kohli over the years have delivered many iconic battles.
“We have played a lot of cricket against one another,” said Mitchell Starc. “I have always had some great battles. I’ve managed to get him out once or twice and no doubt he has scored a fair few runs against me,” he added.
