Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 will be the first major assignment for Team India's new head coach Gautam Gambhir.
The 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) slated to be played in Australia from November 2024 to January 2025, as part of World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 cycle, will be the first true litmus test for India’s newly appointed Head Coach, Gautam Gambhir. Now, Gambhir is a high-profile appointee to the coveted role of India’s coach but it must be remembered that India have won the BGT on their last two visits down under.
Gambhir’s stellar record as India’s twice world cup winning member, notwithstanding, victory in Tests played in Australia is not something he has tasted before. On the one occasion that he was part of India’s squad for a Test series in Australia, his side was drubbed by a margin of 0-4.
Sets it up beautifully, doesn’t it? Will Gambhir guide a strong India side to victory down under for the third consecutive time or will it be him who will be held responsible if India fail?
What are the challenges Gambhir will encounter on that tour and how will he be able to scale them? Let’s delve deeper.
Grooming young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal for the bouncy tracks down under
Yashasvi Jaiswal is no stranger to fame and adulation as in his short red-ball career so far, the young southpaw has already scaled Mount 1000 in a matter of only 9 Tests. He racked up a staggering 712 runs, with 2 hundreds and 3 half-centuries, in the home Test series against England in early 2024. Those runs were made when a lot of other batters gave inconsistent returns, and the left-hander compiled them against a good England attack.
But there is a small yet glaring blemish in Yashasvi’s short career so far. He was only able to make 50 runs in 4 innings when India toured South Africa in 2023-24. The pitches in Centurion and Cape Town had enough assistance for the pacers, and Yashasvi fell to pacers on all four occasions he came out to bat in the series. Three out of those four times, he was dismissed by left-arm pacer Nandre Burger and once by Kagiso Rabada.
Yashasvi will get truer pitches in Australia and could trust his shot-making instincts. But there will be bounce, something which undid him thrice in South Africa. The hit-the-deck bowlers like Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will look to target Jaiswal and it is there that the young batter will be tested.
Will the youngster live up to expectations over the course of a long 5-Test series? This is where Gambhir will have to step in. The former India left-hand opener will play a crucial role in guiding the young prodigy in compiling big scores in what will be alien conditions for the latter.
Back Shubman Gill to do the job at no. 3 in probable absence of veteran Cheteshwar Pujara
Gambhir will have his task cut out to get the vital no. 3 slot to be as solid as it has been since Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara assumed that famed position. With Pujara finding himself out of favour from the national selectors’ reckoning, Shubman Gill is India’s new no. three batter, although he started off as opener.
Gill has been a bit inconsistent in the longest format with runs coming off his bat at crucial junctures but these performances have been too interspersed. Gill has scored 1492 runs in 25 Tests at a sub-par average of 35.52. Although the silver lining for him is that he did relatively well in the 2020-21 tour of Australia. Who could forget his match-defining 91 as opener at the Gabba.
Gambhir will play an important role in reminding the youngster of his Gabba heroics and perform the assigned job of number three batter with elan.
Find reliable fourth pacer/second spinner
It goes without saying that Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj will be India’s top three pacers and Ravindra Jadeja will be India’s preferred spinner in Australia.
Gambhir has his task cut out in grooming the fourth pacer or the second spinner as per the situations. The bouncy tracks in Perth and Brisbane will demand the inclusion of a reliable fourth pacer in the XI whether it be Arshdeep Singh or Mukesh Kumar, while the spinning track in Sydney will require the services of either Kuldeep Yadav or Ravichandran Ashwin as the second spinner.
Gambhir has been known for his unconventional methods in white-ball cricket, whether promoting Sunil Narine up the order for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), or his insistence on making batters bowl substantial overs like one saw in India’s T20I series against Sri Lanka. But the traditional format will demand more out of him as the arena will get expanded. Whether he goes all out in an aggressive way or fight it out in a gritty manner as he did during his playing days, only time will tell.
The five-Test series for BGT 2024-25 will commence in Perth with hosts Australia taking on visitors India from November 22-26.
Read More: Should in-form players play all formats or is 'horses for courses' the right way forward?
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