The Border-Gavaskar Trophy which people have been waiting for so long is taking place in Australia in a month keen interest is already present. This time, Team India hopes to complete a hat trick of series wins in Australia having previously whitewashed Australia in 2018-19 and 202021 with the same final scores of two-one.
In a different scenario, the Australian team will try to find ways to conquer the Indian team with an effective strategy. The Pat Cummins-led squad had already caused India two major upsets last year. In the World Test Championship final, Cummins’ Australia outclassed India and later, in November of the same year also bested Rohit Sharma’s side in the final of the ODI World Cup. The next one on their agenda would be regaining the BGT trophy which has not been with Australia for the past ten years.
This is going to be the first Test series for Cummins as the Australian captain at home. Just before the much-anticipated series began, he took the opportunity to make a light-hearted comment about the conditions he expected to get from the country hosting India.
On the Grade Cricketer Podcast, Cummins amusingly declared that he wants to have ‘bushy pitches’, while gesturing at a green shrub present behind the show’s host.
“I wish, if I had my way, the pitches would be looking like those bushes behind you (laughs),” Cummins was quoted saying.
“Regrettably, I’m unable to contribute in any way, so we’ll just have to wait and see. These last few seasons the pitches have been excellent. It feels as if one hundred is the minimum somebody has to score after spending all that time in the middle, which has taken several sessions as opposed to in my first couple of years when some of those surfaces were so much better.”
The captain of the Australian team isn’t expecting an advantage for either side during the five Test matches of the series.
“All I can say is, I hope there is some way, a balance between the bat and the ball. Also, I do believe, as in that last tour, those type of Indian turning pitches one was in Delhi last time and we ought to have won that one we almost did, centering around those pitches, just makes the replicas of the teams after a few games whereby pitches like those, it is a guarantee that you will not hear our players whine about such pitches,” said the Australian captain.
