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Following a disappointing home series against New Zealand, India will aim to regain their dominance in Test cricket as they face Australia in the eagerly awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The series kicks off in Perth on November 22. India has a recent history of success in Australia, having won back-to-back series (in 2018-19 and 2020-21). Australia will be eager for revenge. Indian captain Rohit Sharma will miss the first Test, with Jasprit Bumrah stepping in as captain. India clinched the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2022-23 on home soil with a 2-1 victory and is determined to defend their title in Australia. They lost to the Aussies in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. The team for the first test will be without key players - Mohammed Shami and Shubman Gill - due to fitness and injury concerns. Virat Kohli, whose Test performance has declined recently, will be under the spotlight. After a disastrous home season with the bat against Bangladesh and New Zealand and underwhelming Test numbers over the years, which includes just two centuries, Virat would be making his fifth and one of his toughest tours to Australia. All the speculation around Virat's form, future in Test cricket and lack of centuries have not affected his hype in Australia as newspapers feature posters and attractive images/slogans highlighting the larger-than-life status the batter enjoys in Australia but all the hype does not take away from the fact that the series could be make-or-break for his Test legacy. Virat's form from 2016-2019 is among the greatest peaks in the longest format as he made 4,208 runs in 43 Tests and 69 innings at an average of 66.79, with 16 centuries and 10 fifties. It was during this period he smashed seven double centuries, the most by a captain in Tests, a record which still stands. This year in 19 matches across international formats, Virat has just scored 488 runs at a shockingly low average of 20.33, with just two half-centuries in 25 innings and best score of 76. Since 2020, Virat has faced an elongated lean patch in the whites, scoring 1838 runs from 34 Tests at an average of 31.68, comprising just two centuries and nine fifties. Virat has had a horrific home Test season this year against Bangladesh and New Zealand, in which he scored just 192 runs in 10 innings at an average of 21.33 with just one fifty. In the latest ICC Men's Test Batting Rankings, Kohli slipped out of the top-20 list for the first time in 10 years. When it comes to Australia, Virat likes to go big, as he has been part of 24 Test matches, where he scored 1979 runs, with eight hundred, and five fifties. India also won their first Border-Gavaskar Trophy under Kohli on Australian soil in 2018-19. On the Australian side, Steve Smith has been a formidable opponent for India, amassing 1887 runs in 18 Tests at an impressive average of 65.06. Both Kohli and Smith are expected to be key players in the series. Australia might introduce Nathan McSweeney as their new opener, while India's squad includes KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Abhimanyu Easwaran. Notable absentees from India's lineup are Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, who played pivotal roles in the previous series in Australia. Comparing recent form, Australia has won four of their last five Tests, whereas India, in a transitional phase, has managed only two wins in the same period. The Perth Stadium, known for its pace, bounce, and carry, could be advantageous for India's Prasidh Krishna if he gets the opportunity. KL Rahul has eight Test centuries, and seven of them have come on foreign soil. Rahul scored his first Test century in his second Test against Australia in Sydney in 2015, scoring 110 runs. Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon, who has an impressive record at Perth Stadium with 27 wickets at an average of 18.00 and two five-wicket hauls, will be a key player for Australia. India's stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah, who boasts an average of 21.25 in Australia, emphasized the importance of the challenge ahead. "This is the toughest challenge. So I give this message to everyone: if you come and perform in this country, then your cricket level will go up, and then your level will keep increasing. So we as a team are focusing to put ourselves in tough challenges so that we become better and take our cricket up," Bumrah stated, according to ESPNcricinfo. Australian captain Pat Cummins expressed confidence in his team's preparation. "It's weird, you know, it's basically been the same side for the last two or three years. So the week lead-in's very normal, it's all very relaxed. Everyone knows how they need to prepare. So it's pretty seamless, you know, all the meetings, training, all those kinds of things. We've done it heaps before with the same people. So, yeah, it's just about kind of reaffirming what we do really well," Cummins said, according to ESPNcricinfo. India (probable): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj Australia(probable): Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood. (ANI)
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