With the end of the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka earlier this month, the Indian cricket team embarked on an unusual 42-day international hiatus. But starting on September 19, India has a packed Test schedule.
India’s upcoming matches
It starts with a home series consisting of two matches against Bangladesh and three matches against New Zealand, and ends with the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Test series in Australia, which is the most anticipated fixture of the year.
Being one of the first to make predictions for the series—which is still nearly four months away—former Australia captain Ricky Ponting predicted a 3-1 victory for his country. In response, the former head coach of India, Ravi Shastri, gently brought up India’s valiant performances in the 2018–19 and 2020–21 Test series played in Australia.
The legendary Australian Matthew Hayden, however, refused to choose a side because he believed that both had an equal chance of winning.
Hayden’s opinion on the Indian cricketers
Speaking to PTI on the fringes of the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards on Wednesday, Hayden stated that if the squad had included Cheteshwar Pujara in the lineup—a “sure-bet batter” in Hayden’s estimation, similar to previous Indian batsmen Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman—he would have selected India for the match.
To offer younger hitters more opportunity, the BCCI selection committee has, however, frequently stated over the past 12 months that they have moved on from veteran batsmen like Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. Moreover, he was not selected for the forthcoming Duleep Trophy competition.
It’s difficult to determine who has the upper hand when looking at the lineups. It seems to me that runs will be what make the biggest difference. Certain bets have retired, such as Cheteshwar Pujara, who was a sure bet given the Australian conditions, the speaker noted.
Was he thrilling? No. Was he successful? Yes, indeed. Over time, individuals such as Raul Dravid and VVS Laxman have shown to be extremely reliable investments in our industry. Runs will be scarce in this series, thus the greatest players must perform well,” he stated.
Pujara’s role in 2018-19 Test Series
In India’s historic 2018–19 series victory in Australia, Pujara was named Player of the Series after amassing 521 runs at 74.42 in four Test matches, including three hundreds and a fifty.
After Virat Kohli (692 runs in 2014–15) and Rahul Dravid (619 runs in 2003–04), it was the second-highest run total by an Indian hitter visiting Australia. In 11 Test matches played in Australia, he has amassed the fourth-highest run total by an Indian batsman with 993 runs.
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