Nostalgia for Brisbane 2021 refuses to fade but India, still reeling from their bitter home debacle, will be under immense pressure in the opening test when they face an equally cautious Australia in a battle of two out-of-form batting units. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins here on Friday. In 2018-19 and 2020-21, India proved that lightning can strike twice with back-to-back series wins, but the way New Zealand have come and seen and destroyed them on home soil recently has certainly touched the psyche of a world-class team. unit.

The undeniable truth is that some of the stars leading this unit are in the twilight of their hallowed careers. How the five-game match against Pat Cummins and his men turns out could determine their future.

A record turnout for the third World Test Championship final, which seemed imminent before the start of the New Zealand series, now looks like a distant dream. A 4-0 scoreline has become an absolute must for India to avoid relying on other teams.

But anyone who has seen this current group up close will confirm that this team can come back from the brink. He also tends to play his best cricket when the Doubting Thomases enjoy a self-deprecating chuckle.

In this environment, Australia, ready to avenge the humiliation they have suffered in the last five years, face a team that has entered the cage without their regular captain (Rohit Sharma on paternity break), the best exponent of the reverse swing (Mohammed Shami, still not 100 percent fit) and a future captain (Shubman Gill, thumb fracture).

An Australian TV series has been known to make or break careers. Sachin Tendulkar scored a hundred with ‘snake cracks’ on the WACA circuit and the world took notice as Dilip Vengsarkar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth had to walk off into the sunset in 1991-92.

Coming ahead of the second Test in Adelaide, Virat Kohli, Rohit and veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin are once again facing that moment of reckoning and there could be repercussions of an indifferent result.

Kohli’s coronation as ‘King Kohli’ took place in 2014 with these four hundred; Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant, however, still loom large in the nightmares of the Australian bowling quartet who will surely play the last Border-Gavaskar series together.

This will perhaps be the series that will be defined by the bowlers more than ever before, and Jasprit Bumrah, who leads the opening game, is tasked with setting the tone against a line-up that has been far from its best even at home in recent times. times.

Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep are likely to be Bumrah’s partners, but the slender Prasidh Krishna and hulking Harshit Rana are also staking their claim with their impressive skill sets.

Whatever the composition, home batsmen cannot afford to take it lightly. Steve Smith’s average in the current WTC cycle (2023-25) is around 36, while his career average is an impressive 56-plus in over 100 Tests.

Marnus Labuschagne’s career average is close to 50, but it has fallen below 30 in the last two years.

Travis Head has been India’s nemesis in back-to-back ICC finals months apart, but even his average is over 28 in this cycle.

Apart from Usman Khawaja, who represented stability even at the end of his career, wicketkeeper Alex Carey and skipper Cummins, now an all-rounder, the batting did not exactly inspire confidence.

Australia’s tail stands a better chance of wagging, given that India are looking to play a better spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin rather than a much better batsman like Ravindra Jadeja.

This could be a tactical decision looking at the moisture and bounce on the first track and if needed the world knows that Ashwin is much better compared to Jadeja when it comes to bowling on opening day tracks.

To ensure that India’s tail does not become as big as that of the Kangaroos in the Australian Outbacks, rookie all-rounder Nitish Reddy is expected to be thrown into the deep end of the pool, hoping and praying that he can become a consistent fourth pacer. gives 12 to 15 overs a day.

In batting, three of India’s top six batsmen have never played in Australia and two have cumulative Test experience of four matches.

But there is something reassuring about Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel.

He will be accompanied by Rishabh Pant, perhaps one of the best Test batsmen India has produced in the last five years, and a slightly insecure but stylish KL Rahul.

If they shoot together, there will be more than a handful of them in India.

Teams

India: Jasprit Bumrah (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar.

Australia: Pat Cummins (C), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.

Match Begins: 7:50 IST.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is syndicated.)