Pat Cummins of Australia and Jasprit Bumrah of India pose with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Since 2014, the winners of the global trophy series, Australia, have won two 50-over World Cups (2015, 2023), four Ashes (2017-2018, 2019, 2021-2022, 2023), one T20 World Cup (2021) and the mace that declared them the newest world test champions (2023).
One piece of silverware, however, has proven strangely elusive: the Border Gavaskar Trophy. It is the award for winning the Test series between India and Australia, named after two legendary cricketers, Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar, who were the second and first respectively to cross the 10,000 run mark in Tests.
Border Gavaskar Trophy
Australia has been contested since 1996 and last touched it in 2014-15 when they defeated India 2-0 Down Under in the four-match series. The next four episodes, all closely contested, were won by India 2-1.
Thanks to the idiosyncratic genius of Rishabh Pant at the Gabba in January 2021, TV stations and fans asked for more, and what have you got: an initial five-Test series of BGT. VVS Laxman’s heroics in Kolkata and the thrilling Test series of 2000-2001 resulted in a three-Test series that turned into a four-Test affair and it seems Pant’s pyrotechnics may have had the same effect.
Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting, not known for his exaggerations, equated the India-Australia rivalry with the Ashes. Ditto for former Ashes-winning captain Michael Vaughan. However, it is now up to the visitors to justify this enormous hype.

With the bitter taste of a 0-3 home defeat to New Zealand still lingering, India, led by Jasprit Bumrah, will take on Pat Cummins’ Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth on what is likely to happen. a fast and bouncy pitch for the first test.
The run-up to the series was far from ideal for the visitors. Regular skipper Rohit Sharma will be missing as he is on paternity leave. Mohammed Shami, probably India’s best seam and swing exponent, is injured. Their promising No. 3 batsman Shubman Gill, who has the game to succeed on Australia’s fast wickets and is extremely safe in the slips, is nursing a thumb injury. Virat Kohli, their batting heartbeat, is out of form.

While India had contingency plans in place for Rohit’s absence, Gill’s injury is a setback as it has forced massive changes in the top six.
KL Rahul, who is low on self-confidence and pathologically inconsistent, will be forced to open as the team management has no faith in Abhimanyu Easwaran after the Bangladeshi batsman failed to complete the four innings he managed to impress in the two matches against Australia A. Patience as a commodity is in short supply when teams are losing.
Karnataka left-hander Devdutt Padikkal, who was on his way home after his efforts for India A, was asked to decompress and report to Perth and is likely to take Gill’s place at number three. Wicketkeeper batter Dhruv Jurel, who batted well for India A and scored two fifties at the MCG, is expected to bat at No. 6, a spot that would normally have gone to Sarfaraz Khan.
There is talk of the visitors opting for medium-pace bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy to hold one end and give a breather to pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep.

What that will also ensure is that the tail isn’t made up of four No. 11s. India are expected to start with a 4-1 combination with offie R Ashwin likely to handle the spin bowling duties considering Australia’s top seven, which includes three left-handers. The hype in Australia has been unprecedented since it was announced in April 2022 that the BGT will be a five-Test series. Captain Cummins (269 wickets) spent most of his time answering questions about the India series even while playing the first two ODIs against Pakistan.
He forms one-fourth of perhaps the greatest bowling quartet Australia has ever produced, with Mitchell Starc (358), Josh Hazlewood (273) and offspinner Nathan Lyon (530).
They are all suitably rested and have prepared well by playing the single Sheffield Shield game to shake off the red ball rust.
There are some concerns surrounding the declining batting averages of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head in the current WTC. But history suggests that the sight of India has always led to an upswing in their form and fortunes.
Australia has all the aces. Can embattled India pull off a 2021 encore?