Team India will hope to continue their dominance on home soil while Australia seek to end a long wait when the two sides lock horns in the first of four Tests in Nagpur starting Thursday.
The Indians have had a near-perfect home run recently: beat both Australia and South Africa in limited-overs fixtures ahead of the T20 World Cup, and pulled off similar results against Sri Lanka and New Zealand last month, including winning six one-dayers in a row.
With the white-ball games done and dusted for now, it’s time for the Indian team to shift its attention to their only home red-ball assignment of the season, with the 16th edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy set to get underway in less than 24 hours.
Australia are coming off a dominant home season having knocked over both West Indies and South Africa with relative ease in Tests. Though facing India, in India, is a different proposition entirely.
India, after all, are considered one of the toughest places in the world to tour. The last time they lost a series at home in any format came in the form of a stunning 3-2 ODI reversal against the Aussies in 2019. The record is even more clinical when it comes to the Test format, with the Indians having lost just three Test assignments on home soil since the start of the millennium, the last of which was against England in 2012-13.
And forget beating them in their own backyard, Australia haven’t beaten India in a Test series for more than eight years now, their last victory coming in the form of a 2-0 win in the 2014-15 season. India, on the other hand, have won two Test series in a row on Australian soil. A massive triumph for a side that hadn’t won a series Down Under ever before.
Australia, eager to dish out a similar treatment to the Indians, had come quite close the last time they toured India, going 1-0 up in the four-match series in early 2017 with a commanding victory in Pune and grabbing a sizeable first innings lead in Bengaluru in the next game, only for the Indians to fight back in style and preserve their winning run at home.
But the task is not an impossible one, and the Australians return to the venue where they conquered the ‘Final Frontier’ more than 18 years ago under Adam Gilchrist. The Pat Cummins-led side will seek inspiration from that performance as well as from the fight that they displayed in their 2016-17 visit as they look to upset the apple cart and get the Border-Gavaskar Trophy back in their possession after more than eight years.
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And it’s not just legacy that’s at stake in the series. The two teams look to be in good place for the World Test Championship final but have yet to make it official. Both Sri Lanka and South Africa are mathematically in contention, and a series defeat for India might just be a ray of hope for them. Australia, meanwhile, have a healthy points percentage of 75.56, and should go through even if they fail to regain the silverware.
Kuldeep vs Axar
The biggest talking point ahead of the four-Test series has been the return of the Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja pairing, with the latter set to make his first appearance for the Indian team since undergoing a knee surgery last year. The Ashwin-Jadeja combo has been at the forefront of India’s domination at home in recent years, becoming near unplayable on the raging turners Day 3 onwards, and what makes them even more invaluable is their contributions with the bat (both have multiple Test centuries to their name).
While the two are among automatic picks for India XI for the first two Tests, there are several spots in the side that will need a lot of pondering over, including that of the third spinner, where left-arm spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel are in a direct battle.
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Both Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Bangar have extended their support to wrist spinner Kuldeep, the latter describing him as a “big impact player”. Kuldeep, on his part, has made the most of the opportunities handed to him. In his latest Test appearance, Kuldeep scalped an eight-wicket match haul on a flat Chattogram wicket.
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