00:00The Border Gavaskar Trophy has been played 16 times with India winning on 10 occasions
00:05while the Aussies have 5 under their belt with 1 draw.
00:08The teams will meet again but this time in a 5 match series down under with Game 1 in Perth.
00:18There are those who see the Border Gavaskar Trophy as being bigger than the Ashes
00:22because India have been more competitive than the English in Australia.
00:25According to cricket analyst Fazir Mohammed, India cannot be underestimated despite having new faces on the side.
00:32India now are at a stage where there is so much competition for places in their team
00:37that even after the embarrassment, the humiliation of losing 3-0 at home to New Zealand
00:43you can expect them to come fighting back even without a Rohit Sharma or some other key player
00:48because they do have that quality.
00:50Obviously Australia are likely to start favourites as the home team with their strongest XI available
00:56but I don't think from what we've seen of Indian cricket over the last decade
01:00that you could count out another magnificent fight back.
01:03Mohammed says the opening position might be a headache for Australia as David Warner is no longer there.
01:08Having said that, here are some of the key players for the Aussies.
01:12I think Usman Khawaja is going to be a key man at the top.
01:15On the bowling side and on the captaincy side, I think Pat Cummins is a key player, a key contributor with runs as well.
01:21Nathan Lyon, even though the first test match is starting on a pacey Perth pitch
01:26with his bounce that he can extract and his experience, he is going to be a factor as well throughout the series.
01:31For India, Mohammed is looking at Virat Kohli despite low scores at test level for some time
01:36and also Rishabh Pant who won his side the Gabba test and series on the last tour.
01:42Overall, I think India have the strength and depth that the bowling I think is going to fare well.
01:48The batting will be a concern on the bouncier tracks
01:51but I think India's attitude towards playing in Australia is far more aggressive now.
01:57That timidity and being fearful of the conditions, that is long gone.
02:01I think they come to these series on the front foot
02:04and therefore it should make for a really intriguing Borda-Gavaskar series.
02:08If you had to predict a scoreline, what would you go with?
02:11The way I see it, 3-2 Australia.
02:13Just for the record, India won the last four Borda-Gavaskar trophies,
02:17two on the subcontinent and two down under.
02:20Vinod Narwani, TV6 Sport.
Comments