Just when Indian cricket is enjoying its 43 days of no cricketing game break, the next five months are all set to present all the edge-of-the-seat thrilling games that hold the potential to rewrite the cricketing history of India.
This cricketers’ carnival, however, brings one of the most popular cricketing fixtures on the globe—the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. This time around, the series is to be a proper five-test series, as it used to be until the recent series when it was a four-test event.
The last time India and Australia mutually played a five-Test series was 1991/92, which can be considered a milestone year in the cricketing history of these two cricket giants. With a place in the final of the World Test Championship at stake, both teams would want to make a statement.
Starting from 2017, India has held the Border Gavaskar trophy, and the Australian side has responded with straight series victories in Australia. At the same time, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting pins his hopes on the same proposition, and he also feels that this time around, the Aussies have gotten back their priceless advantage of playing a five-Test series on the opposed.
‘It will be an intensely fought-out series, and as I said, I think Australia has a bit to prove to India after what has happened the last two series here,” added Ponting when speaking to the ICC Review Show.
The smiling spearhead will start with the tour opener on 22nd November at Perth’s Optus Stadium, a day-night Test match in Adelaide, the natural Gabba strip, the traditional showpiece Christmas Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and the classic New Year’s Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
They will also seek to use the opportunity to sharpen their bowlers’ skills in preparation for the much-anticipated Test series. The Indians also seek to draw level with Sri Lanka as the only team to achieve three consecutive Test series victories in Australia, something that was once regarded as a near impossibility.
Predictably, Ponting has gone for the home side and predicted a 3-1 victory, but cricket fans have waited all these years to see the crème of teams go head to head in a Test series where the winner takes it all in the longest and ultimate format.
