Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Advantage Australia

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy slated for December, at Adelaide, with Virat Kohli seeking paternity leave becoming a first-time father and injury issues with Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma. India has selection issues. The ones faced by Australia without the services of David Warner and Steve Smith. So, it is advantage Australia, opines Vijayhardik. An exclusive for Different Truths.

The last time the teams of India and Australia met on the ground in their whites, India beat Australia in the four-test series, clinching 2-1. Winning the series India also retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy. India’s victory in Australia was the first instance of India emerging victorious in a Test series in Australia.

The Indian cricket team is currently in Australia for a full-fledged tour. The teams will be competing in the T20, ODI and Test formats. They will be playing 3 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 4 Tests.

The One Day Internationals (ODI) get underway in a couple of days at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). The focus, however, is on the Test series. Media reportage and online columns are all about the Test series and rightly so.

As the selection issues of the Indian team have stirred up a lot of debate. It will be interesting to see how the team performs in the absence of key players. The situation looks a bit like India is returning the favour to Australia, it received the last time around.

With David Warner and Steve Smith missing in action due to a ball-tampering ban, weakened the Australian batting line-up. The absence of the talismanic batsmen, Australia’s batting looked a pale shadow of itself.

This time around it is India’s turn. India will be missing both its batting stalwarts and an important cog in India’s pace bowling quartet. The mysterious injury that Rohit Sharma sustained during the Indian Premier League saw him dropped from the Indian squad on the tour to Australia.

A few days later when he turned up for the Mumbai Indians, the fans were asking the obvious. Questions were asked of the Indian cricket board and team management about the injury sustained by Rohit Sharma and his exclusion from the squad.

The suspense about his injury is yet to be settled. But the Rohit Sharma story on his availability does not end there. He was later drafted into the squad when Virat Kohli announced his paternity leave.

Indian cricket captain and batting mainstay Virat Kohli will be on leave to attend to the birth of his child with wife Anushka Sharma post the Adelaide Day-Night Test match. That leaves a huge gap at the number 4 position. Any player filling in for Kohli at number four will have a great responsibility to shoulder.

The absence of Virat Kohli makes life a bit easier for the Aussies but also gives India a chance to test their bench strength. Also missing in action would be the lanky fast bowler Ishant Sharma.

Since his test comeback, Ishant has been a force to be reckoned with. He is the leader of the pack with his experience. His impeccable lengths combined with his frugal economy made him a bowler difficult to score runs off. The injury he sustained just before the IPL began has put his participation in question. However, he was included in the squad for the Australia tour.

The statement by Ravi Shastri about Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma having 3-4 days to travel to Australia to be a part of the squad. Both players yet to travel, have a tight deadline to be there before the tour gets underway. And they would also again have to through quarantine rules set by Australia before they are available for the games.

As of now, India will be missing the services of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. With the bulwarks of Indian batting not playing and Ishant not available, India starts on the backfoot. Currently, it is advantage Australia!

Visuals by Different Truths and photos sourced by the author