Before the blockbuster five-match Test series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia, India will play half of their home season, including the two-match red-ball series against Bangladesh and the three-match series against New Zealand at home before taking the flight in the third week of November, as the opening game begins in Perth.
For the very first since 1991-92, both India and Australia will face each other in a five-match Test series, as the former is looking for their hat-trick of series win in the opponent’s den, having collected the same feat during 2018-19 under the leadership of Virat Kohli and then in 2020-21 in the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane.
India are not going to play any practice matches before the first game at the Optus Stadium, but they will take part in a two-day pink-ball game against the Prime Minister’s XI on November 30 and December 01, ahead of the second day-night encounter in Adelaide from December 06.
John Buchanan makes shocking remark on India’s lack of practice for BGT
The former Australian coach, John Buchanan, despite refusing to predict the winner of what’s expected to be an iconic series, has dropped the name of Australia to be the favorite to beat India, as the latter will hardly get a chance to take part in a warm-up game.
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“I never give predictions on numbers, but I’d just say that I think that Australia’s favored going into the series right at this stage.” John expressed in a recent interview. “Particularly, when look around world cricket these days, and it has been for some time, it’s very difficult to tour other countries, and one of the reasons for that’s that traveling teams no longer have that preparation in a country.”
They don’t play two or three games prior to playing the first Test to adjust to a country, because nobody wants to tour for that long.” The 71-year-old revealed during the interaction. “That makes it very difficult when you go to Perth, when it’s fast and bouncy, for a side that’s coming from (slow surfaces)- they will have played Bangladesh and New Zealand at home obviously. So, the wickets are going to be completely different.”
The veteran felt that even though India would have some advantage having been in the groove of playing the longest format of the game, they would find it tough to start on the fast and bouncy surfaces at Perth.
One of the sights these days has been how the home teams mostly dominate, as John reflected that lack of practice games had been playing a huge role in these cases.
“If you were to look back over the last five years, possibly even longer than that, as sides have toured, their winning percentages, you would see them go that way, irrespective of which team.” The Queensland-born shed light on what could affect India. “And to me that’s very much a part of not spending time in the country, wherever you’re going to adapt to what those conditions are.”
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The five-match long series always tests the physical and mental strength of both teams, and that’s going to be the same case with both India and Australia.
“Look, it’s going to be a classic series, really. Five Tests, which is one more Test obviously one more than played previously, which does make a difference because by the time they reach Sydney, both teams, they will have played presumably four hard Test matches prior to that in a short period of time.” John Buchanan concluded.