Jason Gillespie, the head coach of Pakistan Test, expressed his confidence that Australia would beat India during the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy by proving how strong their bowling quartet is comprised of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and Nathan Lyon.
India is coming into this year’s series riding high on their dominance in the recent Border-Gavaskar contests having won the last four consecutive series encounters; out of which two were historically series on Australian soil in 2018-19 and 2020-21 respectively. On the other hand, Australia has not emerged victorious from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series since 2014-15 when they won it at home ground with a score line of two-nil.
The quartet of bowlers including Nathon Lyon is the best possible combination Australia can field in the park. Gillespie stated on Fox Sports, “I will back them in and I am confident they can get it done.”
Australia last won a Test series on Indian soil back in 2004-05. They lost the trophy when they could only manage 2-1 to India in their four-match meeting last year.
“India is currently red hot; they have been playing some great Test cricket for quite some time now. Although recently they have defeated Australia several times. However, there is still a chance for Australia to beat India this time,” he further added.
There has been a lot of discussion about whether Steve Smith should continue as an opener or revert back to number four position again for Australia. According to Gillespie the experienced player should bat at position number four for the team.
Since the retirement of David Warner earlier this year, Smith was asked to partner Usman Khawaja for opening the innings; and his results have been negative. Smith has batted at an average of 28.50 over four Tests, as opposed to his career average which is much higher at 56.97.
For over a decade now, the Australian team’s batting order has revolved around the right-handed hitter but there are concerns for the team because of awful starts.
“The great player of Australia’s game for ages has been David Warner. You cannot replace people like Warner easily. I liked the idea of Steve Smith moving up the batting order if only during this period. Yet, I think he may finally return eventually to bat in that position just behind 3rd place.
“It really depends on how they want to go about it: returning to domestic cricket thereby rewarding successful opening batsmen among able players who have sits waiting for reward or just leaving them there with six other batsmen…and possibly choosing Travis Head,”.
“If selected, Travis would take full advantage of this chance, although he has been very effective for Australia batting in the middle part of the order mostly counterattacking … So Australia may miss that part, but this could be an opportunity for an alternative such as David Warner,” Gillespie stated.
The 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy is scheduled for series consisting of five matches between India and Australia at Perth, Adelaide (in a pink ball match), Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
The first Test match between India and Australia will begin on November 22nd in Perth.
