Australia or India – Which team has more at stake heading into the Border-Gavaskar Trophy?

Which team has more at stake heading into the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy?

With the five-Test series set to begin in Perth on Friday, SEN’s Gerard Whateley is certain that Australia have more to lose than India.

Although India heads into the series on the back of a 3-0 home series loss to New Zealand, Whateley thinks that far more is at stake for the home side who haven’t won the Trophy since the 2014/15 summer having gone down to India in both 2018/19 and 2020/21.

“Definitely Australia on that front,” Whateley told SEN The New Ball.

“To have lost the last two home series – the first one was compromised by the sandpaper suspensions, but the second one was not only won on merit (by India), it was largely done with the understudies.

“What India was able to do to Australia at the Gabba and Rishabh Pant's innings there – it was just phenomenal, and it is probably still underappreciated. As time goes by, I suspect that it will stand as an epic series win on Australian soil.

“To lose five straight series against India and to lose a third straight series at home, that would be unflattering, to say the least.”

While the likes of Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc played in that 14/15 series victory, Whateley thinks that their legacies could be seriously affected by losing a third straight series at home to India.

On the other hand, those legacies could well be enhanced by winning the Trophy back in emphatic fashion.

“For a big stretch of the careers of all-time greats like Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins … it would be incredibly unflattering to have not won a series against them over such a long period of time,” Whateley said.

“So, there are individual legacies on the line all over the place … legacies that are untouchable but could further be enhanced in that Roger Federer style at the end with the late renaissance.

“But from a team perspective, Australia simply has to win this series at home having been dominated for so long by India.”

The first ball of the series is set for 1:20 pm (AEDT) on Friday, listen to every ball LIVE on SEN and the SEN app.