Border-Gavaskar Trophy preview: Australia start as favourites

Two young teams which are in their transition periods- with some of their senior greats retiring from International cricket- will fight for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Given the horrendous form India has gone through in Test matches in the past year, Australia should be favourites. The Indian batsmen will be tested by a young crop of fast bowlers from Australia. They have a well-balanced pace attack with Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird and Mitchell Johnson. They will be ably supported by Nathan Lyon and Shane Watson.

The batting will be led by the captain Michael Clarke, who is an excellent player of spin. Ed Cowan and Usman Khwaja are promising players; David Warner and Shane Watson will hold the key and will have to take more responsibility and curb their attacking instincts. They will have to graft their runs against Indian spinners, since the Australian batting looks very inexperienced at this level.

The Indian team has concerns with their bowling because of injuries to Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron. Ishant Sharma has experience but lacks consistency. He is the not the same bowler that came in fresh to the Indian team and has lost a lot of pace.

Ashok Dinda should take his chance this time to prove himself in this Indian team. He has competition coming from other bowlers like Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Shami Ahmed and Bhubaneswar Kumar.

Lately, Ravichandran Ashwin has been off colour with his bowling. He is going the Harbhajan way. The batsmen are finding him easy to play. On Indian pitches, he should be our trump card like Anil Kumble was in the past: controlling runs and also taking wickets. Unfortunately, he isn’t doing that.

Pragyan Ojha has been doing well. The Indian captain should trust him more and make him the leader of the bowling attack in India. He can be our primary wicket taker. Ojha should work on more variations in his bowling. Harbhajan Singh is unlikely to get chances until Ashwin or Ojha bowl very badly. However, since he has a good record against Australia, he could be worth trying against this young batting line up.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli will have to play major roles in the batting and prove that they can be the future of the Indian Test team. Pujara will have to show the same form he showed against England in the last series. Virat Kohli will have to play a few notches better. Off late, he seems to be out of form. However, he is the future of Indian cricket. The old guards Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag will have to redeem their positions. There has been a rather consistent inconsistency from them. They are great players and must be proud of their reputation. But they also have to deliver now, or their places in the Indian team will be in doubt.

Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane have got their chances in past, but now they have to fight for their places. The time has come that they perform with same consistency at the international level as they do at the domestic level.

It will be a contest between the young Indian batting and Australia’s pace attack. Australia is tough and they are a very good fielding side, which makes their bowling more menacing. If the Indian spinners come to party, then India has some chance; otherwise, Australia are favourites for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.