The Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), which is considered one of the fiercest rivalries in Test cricket, will see another edition unfolding on November 22 in Perth, when Australia will try to end India’s decade-long hold on the silverware in a five-Test series.
It will be the first time that the BGT will be contested over a series of five matches, with a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) at stake. However, India’s chances have diminished after a 0-3 whitewash at home by New Zealand and now hinge on a successful defence of the BGT by a distance.
India, who have lost their top stop in the WTC table to Australia, won on their last two Test tours of Australia; but the team coached by Gautam Gambhir hasn’t had the ideal preparation this time with repeated batting failures at home.
The famed Indian batting line-up failed to produce the runs, which included a string of low scores by skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
While Rohit scored 91 runs in six innings against the Kiwis, Kohli aggregated just 93.
The failure of the duo has led to a debate whether it’s time for the two to call time on their Test careers, especially if India fail to qualify for the WTC final. The duo retired from the T20Is earlier this year in June after India won the T20 World Cup.
Interestingly, looking back at the history of BGT, six Indian legends played the last Test of their respective careers in the prestigious series.
Here’s the list:
1. Anil Kumble – vs Australia at Delhi, Oct 29 – Nov 2, 2008
2. Sourav Ganguly – vs Australia at Nagpur, Nov 6-10, 2008
3. Rahul Dravid – vs Australia at Adelaide, Jan 24-28, 2012
4. VVS Laxman – vs Australia at Adelaide, Jan 24-28, 2012
5. Virender Sehwag – vs Australia at Hyderabad, March 2-5, 2013
6. MS Dhoni – vs Australia at Melbourne – Dec 26-30, 2014
Talking about India’s squad for the coming tour of Australia, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is the eldest at 38 years old, followed by Rohit who is 37, while both Kohli and Jadeja are 35.
Will any of them join the above-mentioned list of six players after this BGT?