Another series, same result, the Border-Gavaskar series Trophy since the past decade has somewhat lost its way to Australia. After multiple conversations around the rank-turners, claims on one-sided pitches, and personal camps, everything came crumbling down as the Kangaroo’s slack efforts led to India taking an unassailable 2-0 lead in winning the Delhi Test.
The problem started from the very first innings where Australian batters were clueless against the Indian tweakers which stretched throughout the match, a barrage of sweeps and reverse sweeps followed in the next match pretty much looked like a result of prolonged pressure from Ashwin and Jadeja throughout Test matches, in addition to the buildup of mental fog that frequently envelops foreign players in India.
BBL Over Test Cricket
In 2017, The Australian touring team came extremely close to defeating India and had 24 clear days between leaving for a camp in Dubai to get accustomed to the entirely different conditions Pune had to offer compared to the only 13 days between the commencement of the Nagpur Test and a mini-camp in North Sydney on a scarified surface. The team also refused to play the practice game ahead of the series stating them to be unfruitful.
Additionally, only non-Big Bash League players showed up to the camp this year, which means only one of the six who played in Delhi, Pete Handscomb. Even though the rights had already been secured, CA remained true to its broadcast partners by allowing Warner, Smith, Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, and Matt Renshaw to fulfill their BBL commitments. This asks questions about whether the officials were more concerned about the television rights negotiations rather than preparing for the big series ahead.
Are Aussies fading away?
2023 is no ordinary year for Australian Test cricket, other than the World Test Championships Finals, it is the year of Ashes, and this Border-Gavaskar despite the distinct conditions was called to be the World no.1 side’s final frontier.
The last time the side took the Ashes on English soil was back in 2001 and similar is the story with the Border-Gavaskar series, where the last time the trophy was seen in the Australian cabinet was when they claimed in 2014-15 at home. As far as touring to India is concerned, the last good memories the visitor can recall of is when Shane Warne was still captaining the Aussie unit and flew home taking the prestigious trophy with his side defeating India in India, still a dream for many nations.
Packed in World’s Test Batters according to the numbers supported by one of the finest pace units in the longest format, have the Kangaroos lost their gleam outside of home?