World No. 1 Test side Australia will face India in a five-match Test series later this year. The 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is set to start on November 22 in Perth, and the next four matches will take place in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth. After suffering embarrassing defeats in the last two Test series played on Australian soil, Baggy Greens would like to come up with a big show this time around and end India’s dream of completing a hat-trick of series win Down Under.
Even though there is still around two months of time left for the Test series to start, discussions about the India-Australia series are in full swing in both countries.
Ahead of the high-voltage Test series, apart from which team will win, the main talk is about Steve Smith’s batting position. The former Australian captain opened for the Aussies in the last two Test series against the West Indies and New Zealand but failed to do much with the bat. There are talks about him returning back to his preferred No. 4 position in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Amid news of him dropping down the batting order, when Smith was asked about his batting position, the legendary right-handed batter who has 9685 runs to his name in 109 Tests played so far said that he is happy to bat anywhere for the team.
“I have no idea. There’s conversations happening in the background. You know, you see some comments that guys like Usman (Khawaja), I think, made. He said he likes me down at No. 4. So, I think Marnus (Labuschagne) is of a similar thought pattern. So yeah, look, we’ll wait and see. I’m happy anywhere. I’ll bat wherever for the team, but we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters.
According to Smith, he is looking forward to playing in the five Tests against India and said India and Australia are the two best teams in the world.
“You know, I think it’s great as well that we’re able to play a five-match series against them. You can’t really hide in a five-match Test series like you probably can in a two-match series, for instance. So, if someone gets the wood on you, then it can be hard coming back from that. So, it’s going to be a wonderful series. As I said before, I think we’re probably the two best teams in the world at the moment in Test cricket.”
“We played the World Test Championship final last year and beat them there. So, they’ve been great out here the last couple of times. They’ve played really good cricket. Hopefully we can turn the tables. It’s been 10 years, I think, since we last won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. So, we need to do that this year,” he added.
Australia last won a Test series against India in 2014-15. Since then, they have lost four red-ball assignments in a row.
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