Spotlight on Cummins and Bumrah as they lead their teams on a pace-friendly deck at Perth in BGT opener
Perth, Nov 21: The first Test of the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy will witness an uncommon scene when two fast-bowlers – Pat Cummins and Jasprit Bumrah – will walk out in captain’s blazers for the toss.
Cummins’ well-worn Australia Test cap number 423, with its fraying peak and fading coat of arms, betrayed a playing tenure stretching back to 2011 with the past three of those years as captain.
By contrast, Bumrah’s almost pristine navy fabric sporting the Star of India and number 290 would seem to have been updated since his debut in 2018 and is perhaps a new model presented in his only previous Test outing in charge at Edgbaston in 2022.
And while the world’s number three (Bumrah) and four (Cummins) ranked Test bowlers might be at differing stages of their respective captaincy journeys, they are also indicative of a broader change in cricket’s leadership structure.
The nostalgia of Brisbane 2021 refuses to fade but India, still reeling from a bitter home debacle, will be under tremendous pressure when they face an equally circumspect Australia in a battle of two out-of-form batting units in the opening Test of the marquee Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting here on Friday.
In 2018-19 and 2020-21, India proved that lightning can strike twice with back to back series wins but the manner in which New Zealand came, saw and decimated them on home turf recently has certainly hit the psyche of an otherwise world-class unit.The undeniable truth is that some of the stars driving this unit are in the twilight of their hallowed careers. How the five-match rubber against Pat Cummins and his men unfolds could well decide their future.
A record third World Test Championship final entry that looked imminent before the start of the New Zealand series, now seems like a distant dream. A 4-0 score-line has become an absolute necessity for India to avoid relying on other teams.
And a 4-0 scoreline on Australian soil is as improbable a proposition as an Indian football team beating Brazil or Argentina in a FIFA friendly.
But anyone who has seen this current bunch from close quarters will vouch that this team can bounce back from the brink. It also tends to play its best cricket when Doubting Thomases enjoy a condescending chuckle at their expense.
In this backdrop, Australia, ready to avenge the humiliation suffered in last five years, face a team that enters the cage without its regular skipper (Rohit Sharma on paternity break), its best exponent of reverse swing (Mohammed Shami, still not 100 per cent fit) and a future skipper (Shubman Gill, thumb fracture).
An Australia series is known to make or break careers. Sachin Tendulkar scored a hundred on a WACA track with ‘snake cracks’ and the world took notice while Dilip Vengsarkar and Krishnamachari Srikkanth were forced to walk into the sunset back in 1991-92.
Virat Kohli, Rohit, who will arrive before the second Test in Adelaide, and senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin are facing that moment of reckoning yet again and an indifferent result could have repercussions.
Kohli’s coronation as ‘King Kohli’ happened in 2014 in this very country with those four hundreds while Cheteshwar Pujara and Rishabh Pant still make appearances in the nightmares of the Aussie bowling quartet, which will certainly be playing its last Border-Gavaskar series together.
This will perhaps be the series which will be decided by bowlers more than ever with Jasprit Bumrah, leading in the opening game, entrusted with the duty of setting the tone against a line-up which has been far from its best even at home in recent times.
Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep are likely to be Bumrah’s partners but the lanky Prasidh Krishna and the burly Harshit Rana are also staking a claim with impressive skill sets.Whatever be the composition, the home batters cannot afford to take it lightly. (PTI)
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 Starts: 7:50 am IST