Settled Australia vs new-look India as fabled rivalry resumes

Big Picture

You run into fast bowlers everywhere in Perth. One of them was walking down Plain Street, which is a five-minute walk from the WACA, with a bag of groceries. Mitchell Starc will be a little less chill once the clock hits 10.20am on Friday.

This Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been on simmer for a fair while. Rohit Sharma faced questions about it at the start of the India home season in September and the wrap-up press conference in November was in large part about easing the pain of a home series whitewash by trying “to do something special” in Australia. Pat Cummins has had a similar experience.

Some of the best Test cricket in recent times has happened when these two teams meet, so it’s their own fault that everywhere they go they get asked questions about it. A day out from the first Test, most of them appear to have been answered. Australia have their new opening batter, Nathan McSweeney having made a late push for the job. India have KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana primed and ready should they be needed. All that’s left is for the experience to take over.

On Thursday evening, in front of an empty Perth stadium, the morning-of-day-one-drills were taking place. Regular people were pretending to be India and Australia captains to check how it’d look on screen. It was easy to be transported to the moment when all that will actually happen, and its just one sleep away. One sleep away until Jasprit Bumrah charges in. One sleep away until Steven Smith is back at No. 4. One sleep away until Virat Kohli brings the crowd to their feet. One sleep away until Rishabh Pant is broadcast all around the world via the stump mics.

The cricket, fun as it will be, is likely to come with a fair bit of flavour added in from the outside. There’s already been a little bit of needle. Ricky Ponting’s quotes being taken out of context got Gautam Gambhir fired up. India’s efforts early on to train in private caused a stir. Josh Hazlewood did a fly by when he said he was happy not to see Cheteshwar Pujara in the Indian team. Every kind of fan will be satisfied with what the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will offer and the first ball is just one sleep away.

Form guide

Australia: WWLWW (last five matches, most recent first)

India: LLLWW

In the spotlight

It’s been over eight months since Australia have played Test cricket and it seems Mitchell Starc has spent some of that getting into the best shape of his life. He’s 34 now. He shouldn’t be looking like a six-foot-tall brick wall. Nor should he be bowling at speeds that turns the red ball into a red blur. There has been an admission that in a five-Test series, no matter how fit they are, the big three Australian quicks might need to be managed extra carefully but right now, with the series starting at Perth stadium, where Starc averages 19, then moving to Adelaide for a pink-ball Test, in which Starc averages 18.72, they could very well set themselves up to take their time off with the series already in the bag.

KL Rahul just can’t seem to get off this ride. Grew up as an opening batter but had to make his debut in the middle order. Then got that spot up top but started losing his stumps a little too often for someone to stay in that position. A shift back into the middle order, especially in white-ball cricket, seemed to indicate that’s where his future lies. An 86 against England at No. 4 in January 2024 furthered that notion, but since then he’s gone off the boil to the point that he lost his place in the side. Now he’ll be opening the batting in conditions that will not be in his favour against one of the world’s best bowling attacks.

Team news

Australia are as settled as can be, having put their trust in McSweeney, whose ability to stay calm and unflustered has earned him the nickname “Buddha”.

Australia(probable): 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Nathan McSweeney, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood

India are of course without their full-time captain and grappling with a minor personnel crisis, meaning they will go into Perth relying on several fringe players. Padikkal (24), Jurel (23), Reddy (21) and Rana (22) are all in line for a spot in the XI. It is possible there will only be room for one spin bowler and R Ashwin might just make the cut ahead of Ravindra Jadeja.

All this said, the last time India had a personnel crisis in Australia, remember what happened?

India (probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Harshit Rana/Prasidh Krishna 10 Mohammed Siraj/Akash Deep, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Pitch and conditions

Although some unseasonal rainfall two days ago denied the Perth stadium groundstaff from getting the pitch up to where they want it to be, there has since been a lot of sunshine, hardening the surface up and getting it to where it should offer excellent pace, bounce and carry. Head curator Issac McDonald and his staff have been working towards creating a “happy medium between bat and ball”.

Stats and trivia

Seven of Rahul’s eight Test centuries have come away from home but his batting average in these matches being 31 highlights how he can often be boom or bust.
Nathan Lyon has more wickets at this venue (27) at a better average (18.00) with more five-wicket hauls (2) than any of his fast-bowling colleagues
Bumrah’s bowling average in Australia is 21.25, which is only a shade better than Jadeja’s 21.78. One will make the XI. The other might not.
Quotes

“This is the toughest challenge. So I give this message to everyone: if you come and perform in this country then your cricket level will go up, and then your level will keep increasing. So we as a team are focusing to put ourselves in tough challenges so that we become better and take our cricket up.”
India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah on how he’s been motivating a somewhat young and inexperienced Indian side

“It’s weird, you know, it’s basically been the same side for the last two or three years. So the week lead-in’s very normal, it’s all very relaxed. Everyone knows how they need to prepare. So it’s pretty seamless, you know, all the meetings, training, all those kind of things. We’ve done it heaps before with the same people. So, yeah, it’s just about kind of reaffirming what we do really well.”
Australia captain Pat Cummins wasn’t prepared for this much continuity but is still glad for it