India’s much-awaited home season will commence in 17 days’ time when the Men in Blue return to action after a long 43-day break as they take on Bangladesh in a two-Test series at home. This will act as a pre-cursor to the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy – a five-Test affair in Australia starting November 22 – expected to surpass all expectations. India, buoyed by the historic wins of the last two series Down Under, would be eager for a hat-trick of wins, while Australia will be driven by the motivation to avenge those defeats and bring the Border-Gavaskar Trophy back to the shores after eight years.
India and Australia have been part of some high profile matches over the last year, clashing in the final of the World Test Championship, the ODI World Cup and the semi-final of the T20 World Cup; hence, nothing like bringing these two cricketing powerhouses together for a full-fledged Test series in one of the most hostile environments in the world. Preparations are underway already with India gearing up for a long season ahead, starting the Duleep Trophy from September 5, where the likes of Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan and many more will hit the ground running.
With the selectors expected to sit down and finalise the 15-member squad in due time after consultation with captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir, Sarfaraz and Gill have been backed by Dinesh Karthik to make the flight to Australia later this year. Both batters had a memorable time in the Test series against England between January and March, which India won 4-1. Sarfaraz scored 200 runs in three Tests, including two half-centuries, while Gill had a blast with 452 runs at an average of 56.5 with two hundreds and fifties each. Karthik feels from the current crop of players, Sarfaraz and Gill could perform the same role as veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have done for all these years, but whether they’ll be able to be as effective as India’s former middle-order pair remains to be seen.
“Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan… both of those batters have done really well against England in the home series that took place at the start of the year. I have a feeling both of them will definitely be on that flight to Australia and will be trying to do their best. We will know whether they’ll be able to replace Ajinkya and Pujara. Big shoes to fill but they have the quality and caliber in them,” Karthik said while answering a question on Cricbuzz.
Easier said than done
Pujara and Rahane played instrumental roles in India’s last two series wins in Australia. In the 2018/19 BGT, Pujara was India’s middle order backbone, amassing 521 runs in four Tests with three centuries. He was equally gritty three years later, along with Rahane, who, as India’s stand-in captain, led from the front with a hundred at the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and shepherded India’s remarkable 2-1 come-from-behind series win.
However, as indispensable as Rahane and Pujara were in Kohli’s Team India, the same cannot be said for Sarfaraz. Pushing Gill to No. 3 worked wonders as Gill produced stellar performances, but Sarfaraz’s inclusion came on the back of injuries to KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer. With both expected to be back in the scheme of things, it would take a brave man with a bold prediction to guarantee Sarfaraz a place in the Playing XI.
