Australia’s hopes of ending their decade-long Border-Gavaskar Trophy drought against India have been dealt a blow by the visitors’ formidable fast bowling attack, according to star batter Marnus Labuschagne.
India has dominated the bilateral Test series against Australia since 2014-15, winning the last two series 2-1 in 2018-19 and 2020-21. Labuschagne believes that India’s fast bowlers, led by Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj, pose a significant challenge in Australian conditions.
“India’s fast bowling is very good, which is really what brings them in Australian conditions and make them such a tough team to beat in Australian conditions,” Labuschagne told Star Sports.
The middle-order mainstay emphasized that the rivalry between Australia and India is always intense, regardless of where it is played.
“There is always high anticipation. To these two teams, it doesn’t matter where we’re playing, if it’s in England, Australia, or India, it’s always a tough contest,” he said.
Australia spinner Nathan Lyon echoed Labuschagne’s sentiments, describing the Indian players as “superstars” and expressing his eagerness to renew his on-field rivalry with India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
“I’ve always said throughout my whole career (that) I want to compete against the best and you look through the whole Indian line-up, the whole squad, there’s absolute superstars everywhere,” he said.
“I know Ashwin, we debuted around similar times and we’ve competed against each other in a number of series. I have got nothing but respect for him. He is an absolute master in the craft of off-spin bowling and it’s been an absolute privilege to play against him and learn off him,” said Lyon.
All-rounder Cameron Green suggested that the five-Test series between India and Australia, starting on November 22 at Perth, could be a “preview” for the final of the World Test Championship next year.
India leads the WTC table for the 2023-25 cycle with 68.52 percentage points and 74 points, followed by Australia with 62.50 percentage points and 90 points.
The WTC final will be played at Lord’s from June 11-15 next year and could feature both the current top two teams once again. India have featured in the summit clashes of the WTC on both occasions but have lost to New Zealand (2019-21) and Australia (2021-23).
“Every single point is pretty crucial for the World Test Championship. Anyway you can kind of (or) get an idea of (to) how to get one up on your opponent, we’ll try and take,” Green said.
“If it is a bit of a preview for a World Test Championship final again, yeah, we’ve been trying to get as much information out of India and see how we can win it again,” he added.
