The Border-Gavaskar trophy is a test match series played between India and Australia every two years. The series gets its name from Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar, two distinguished captains of the respective nations. The series always comes with the hype of its own and doesn’t disappoint the spectators and cricket fans.
Currently, the trophy is held by India, after winning it 2-1 in Australia back in 2021. The memories of the series are still fresh in memory. The match looked like a battlefield and the dressing rooms were like hospitals. The Australians didn’t hold back a bit and put up a lethal pace attack throughout the series. With the then-captain and star of the team, Virat Kohli leaving soon after the first match to fulfil parental duties, India was in a tough spot. Players like Rohit Sharma kept getting injured because of the ruthless bowling attack, and the young, less experienced ones had to take the fight up. After losing in the second match, the Indians were stressed. When we were close to losing the third, but Ravi Ashwin and H Vihari put up a valiant fight against the Aussies and faced over 300 deliveries to save the match and end it in a draw. With the scores levelled, it all came down to a series decider at Gabba, where no team have been successful in defeating the Aussies for a long time. India again put up a valorous fight, with the Indian second innings needing to chase down a big target. With no changes to their approach, the inexorable bowling attack continued. The openers scored well and gave a good start. But, it was the middle order, that had to face all the wrath. Che Pujara got hit on almost every other part of his body. He stood against the whole army of bowlers as an immovable force and stabilised the innings. And when ChePu had to depart, came in Rishab Pant. His aggressive approach to the game pushed the Aussies to the backfoot and they had to rework their pace attack to silence him. He kept creating opportunities and scored the final runs to seal the series victory for India and the Border-Gavaskar trophy with it. It was a young Indian team, without the stars Rohit and Virat, that fought through the battle and emerged victorious. India officially “breached the Gabba fortress” after many many years. That feat put the Indian team at the forefront of world cricket.
Fast forward two years and the Australian team is touring India for the trophy. They have arrived at a stadium on the outskirts of Banglore for practice. The banter and rekindling of memories had already started weeks ago. That is how Australia likes to do it, creating hype among the fans and the cricketing community. The first test is all set to take place at Nagpur on the 9th of February. Speaking of the teams, Ravi Jadeja is set to make a comeback after his knee treatment. The Ravi duo, Jadeja and Ashwin offer an extremely efficient bowling all-rounders combo. Both of them are leading wicket-takers, and they have saved a lot of matches with the bat as well. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are also in the 17-member squad announced by the BCCI. Kuldeep has done really well since his comeback to the Indian side. He has worked on his run-up, bowling angle and bowling speed, which have obviously been fruitful. He’s bowling quicker deliveries at a much better angle, and I’d wish for his wicket-taking spree to go on forever. Axar Patel has done very well. He has come to the limelight in the absence of Jadeja. Talking of the pace attack, the standard group, Siraj, Shami, Unadkat and Umesh Yadhav. That’s a well-experienced and decent pace attack, IMO. In the batting department, we have Bharat, Ishan, Surya and KL, among the usual ones. Now, the biggest problem with the batting is the absence of Rishab Pant and the injured Shreyas Iyer. Iyer has outperformed expectations ever since he debuted in international test cricket, in fact, he scored a century in his debut match. He had borne the team and delivered whenever the team needed him most. Iyer was suffering from an injury in the spine and was undergoing treatment. According to reports, he should be fit to play in the series. I wish for his recovery and health. Talking of Pant, he has been an X-factor in many matches, although he couldn’t score big in many. The intent that he shows towards the game and the natural aggression that he has will be missed this time. Even if he doesn't score big, he sets the stage for the others to expand upon. He has been making steady progress, but this accident has pushed his cricketing career backwards, at least by 18 months. This is the time for India to permute potential replacements for Pant and assess how they perform under different conditions.
The Australian side is pretty much standard, with some changes, of course. The “big three” bowlers, Starc, Captain Cummins and Hazlewood all average more than 30 in India. Nathan Lyon is the only bowler in the side that averages below 30. Lyon strongly believes that he has familiarised himself more with the conditions and pitch over the years. The top Indian batsmen will look to gain supremacy over Nathan Lyon early on in the series. He is complemented by 3 more spinners, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson and Todd Murphy. All of them aren’t well-proven talents in the cricketing arena. Adam Zampa was being considered for selection, but according to reports, a last-minute decision led to the selection of Todd Murphy for the team. If the spinners don’t deliver enough, Australia is forced to rely on their “big three” to save the day. The batting lineup looks very strong this time around. Although Steve Smith is the only batsman from the Australian side to average more than 60 in India, the others are in very good form. Warner, Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, and Handscomb are in very good form. Usman Khawaja is in terrific form but is likely to miss the first test due to delays in the Visa process.
Overall, this is going to be a very interesting series as it’s the final stop before the world test championship finals. India needs to silence Smith and Lyon if they want to go the winning way. Australia is already in a comfortable position in the points table. India needs to snatch the series with a good margin to qualify for the WTC finals. I’m very excited about this, and I hope you are too. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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