Australia-India Test cricket history is a rich one which dates back 77 years when the first Test series between them was held in 1947-48 in Australia. Since 1996, the series has been named the Border -Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) in honour of the two legends of the game who then were the top two run-getters in Test cricket.

It has been a great and engaging rivalry often being compared with the Ashes series between traditional rivals, England and Australia, and even remotely to the Bodyline series if one goes by the intensity of the competition.

India had held the trophy for the last 10 years until the latest handover to the Aussies early this month. Nonetheless, the contests have always been intense as is reflected in the scorelines of 2-1 in favour of India in the previous four series – 2017, 2018-19, 2020-21 and 2023.

For the first time in 33 years, the Australia-India Test series had 5 matches in the latest BGT tournament. This marks the increasing relevance and strength of these two teams in world cricket. Also at stake were the crucial ICC World Test Championship (WTC) points with both teams vying for the spot in the final of the Championship.

Having come into the BGT series after a rare but crushing whitewash home series loss to New Zealand, India needed to win the series by a 4-1 margin to decisively qualify for the WTC. A few other scenarios also could have allowed them to progress. Australia, for instance, had to win 4 out of the 7 Tests they had in hand (5 versus India and the subsequent 2 Tests versus Sri Lanka away from home) in order to secure the final spot in the WTC.

What has happened to these permutations is by now well known, with India losing the series to the Aussies miserably and its WTC chances wiped out. Having continued its abysmal form since the home series against New Zealand, the forlorn Indian team seemed to walk into the series destined for a washout.

But for the dramatic win in the first match by the Jasprit Bumrah-led side, the rest of the series was about enduring miseries. Other than Bumrah’s spectacular form despite serious injuries, and some notable salvage performances by the 21-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy, the rest of the series were about the disastrous outings of India’s star cricketers – from the captain forced to sit out due to bad form to the batting mainstay collapsing in innings after another, and the star spinner of yore in the squad announcing his retirement midway through the series, probably anticipating the washout. 

This self-inflicted condition is of a national team that not just topped most ICC rankings in recent years but also populated by star players that brought home the ICC T-20 World Cup just a few months earlier. As The Polity out in its analysis on the eve of the T-20 World Cup last year, heavy reliance on star power rather than consistent performances has been sounding the alarm bells for quite some for Indian Cricket.

Those warning signs seem to have come to denouement in the BGT through the disastrous events described above. If the series with Kiwis was a wake-up call, the BGT fully exposed the chinks in the armour. Below is a holistic analysis, based on the takeaways from the BGT, which could provide a glimpse of the current state of Indian Test cricket.

A series that bared it all

Having come into the BGT after the Kiwi washout, and the regular captain away for family chores, few expected the Indian team to romp home in the first Test. Perth generally has been pace bowlers’ paradise – starting from the old WACA (1970s to 2017) and later the new stadium Optus.

The choice of Perth also marked a shift in the opening game of Australia’s international customarily played at Gabba in Brisbane, which is being upgraded for the Summer Olympics of 2032. Furthermore, Cricket Australia wants to promote the West Test (Perth in Western Australia) which will also host the Ashes opener in the next few seasons.

Due to Rohit Sharma's absence, the first Test also witnessed a rare sight of two premier fast bowlers – Pat Cummins and Bumrah walking in as captains.

The Australian paces bundled out the visitors for 150 with the Indian batters struggling to adjust to the pace and bounce of Perth. However, the trend favoured Bumrah and his bowlers who managed to bowl out the hosts for a mere 104. While the Australian bowlers tried to fight back in the second innings, opener Yashaswi Jaiswal, on his first tour of Australia and out for a duck in 1st innings, played a scintillating knock of 161 with support from KL Rahul.

The target set of 534 was beyond reach and never achieved in Test history. It remained that way as Bumrah once again ran through the Australian top order and finished with the Player of the Match for his 8 wickets in the game with a 295-run win.

India had taken a 1-0 lead in the series. There was enough time before the next match that provided lots of ammunition to the Australian media to blast their team for the lacklustre performance, especially in the batting department.

A historic bouncing back was in store!

The second Test was scheduled as a Day-Night with the pink ball in Adelaide Oval. It has been a tradition since 2015 to have the Test at Adelaide as a D/N with pink ball barring only two occasions. The last time these two teams played a pink ball game in Adelaide was in 2020 when the Australian fast pacers bowled India out for 36, its lowest-ever Test score. 

This time around, India won the toss and put Australia to bowl. The fate of the game was literally sealed on the first ball itself when left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc bowled out Jaiswal on the very first ball of the match. Starc went on to rampage through the Indian lineup with his best Test figures of 6/48. The Indians were all out for 180.

In reply batting, the Australian top order took the shine of the new ball despite the fact that the pink ball generally does more under lights. This set the stage for Travis Head, who had pulverised the Indian bowlers over the years in many important games, notably the ODI World Cup 2023 final and the WTC 2023 final. Scoring 140 off 140 balls in front of his home crowd, Head provided the match-winning innings as Australia took a 157-run overall lead in the first innings.

The match was wrapped up on Day 3 with Cummins taking 5/57 and Australian batsmen chasing down the paltry target of 19 runs. The key point to note is India hardly plays any pink ball cricket while Australia plays at least one Test every season; thus, the gap in the skills to negotiate the pink ball was evident in both Indian innings.

The third Test was at Gabba, Brisbane, where India beat Australia to clinch the series 2-1 back in the 2020-21 tour, which was also Australia’s first loss in 32 years at the venue. Inclement weather was predicted for most of the Test in Brisbane this time and eventually had a big say on the game which was washed out.

Nonetheless, the outing revealed more chinks in the armour for India.

Australia’s first innings score of 445 was built around the partnership of Travis Head and Steve Smith, both making light of Indian bowling and scoring centuries. The Indian batting collapsed again as Aussie pacers with only Rahul’s knock of 84 standing out. It took tailenders Bumrah and Akashdeep to take India past the follow-on mark. With a first-innings lead of 185, Australia set a of 275 in 54 overs. Considering that the top order was fragile and star batsmen in bad form, it was the weather that saved the day for India. 

At the Melbourne Test, Australian skipper Cummins won his first toss of the series and chose to bat first in front of a record crowd size of 87,000 plus. In the first innings score of 478, 19-year-old debutant opener Sam Konstas made his mark with a half-century. On expected lines, the Indian first innings was rocked by Cummins and Scott Boland.

While only Jaiswal, with his 82, made a mark from the top order, the Melbourne Test revealed the talent of Nitish Reddy, who, besides hitting his first Test century steadied the ship along with Washington Sundar. India though ended with 369 giving Australia a handsome105 runs lead.

Bumrah’s magic run in the series continued as he ripped through the Australian middle order to have hosts reeling at 6/91 and giving India a lead of 196. However, Marnus Labuschagne led the fight back, and along with the Australian lower order took the target to 339. It highlighted the overreliance on Bumrah for wickets as other Indian bowlers were hardly effective.

Set to chase 340 runs or to survive 92 overs on day 5 for a draw, the Indians surrendered meekly at 155 in an inning that saw swing bowling, in particular Mitch Starc, at its best. 

The MCG Test made history for the highest attendance for a Test match in Australia – going past the record of Don Bradman’s times in the late 1930s. The total attendance for the match stood at 3,73,000 with 80,000 plus on each of the first three days and another record of 73,000 on the final day.

Coming from Perth with a 0-1 deficit, the hosts surged to a 2-1 lead after 4 Tests and a big chance to gain a WTC Final spot with a win at the Sydney. India, on the other hand, faced a must-win situation in order to retain the trophy.

It was a short turnaround from Melbourne with 3 days gap between Tests but no shortage of drama in the Indian camp, with the spotlight on out-of-form captain Rohit Sharma. The dramatic twist came when captain Rohit Sharma decided to ‘stand down’ for this game, causing the ignominy of the first Indian captain to be dropped amid a series due to bad form.  

Stand-in skipper Bumrah won the toss and elected to bat in the cloudy weather conditions. The Australian bowlers, especially Scott Boland, were relentless in their attack with the Indian batting succumbing to their familiar collapse at 185, India’s 5th score below 200 on this tour.

The pitch at SCG being the spiciest in the last 10-15 years meant that batting would be tougher and the game would not last five days. While the Bumrah-led bowling side initially restricted the Aussies to 4/33, debutant all-rounder Beau Webster, along with Steve Smith, kept the score ticking. However, post-lunch saw another dramatic twist as India’s star pacer, Bumrah, left the field with back spasms. Prasidh Krishna and Reddy restricted the Aussies to 181. 

With just a four-run lead to the visitors, the 2nd innings was to be the determinant for the series.

Yet another predictable top-order collapse marked the Indian batting with the role of salvager going to Rishabh Pant this time, with a T-20-like innings of 61 off 33 balls. Given a target of 162, on a tricky surface but without Bumrah around, the Australian top order, including Smith (who was bowled out at 9,999 Test runs), Head and Webster, romped home with the Trophy and the series.   

While Australia won back the Border Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years, the series was a revelation in terms of the qualitative decline of the Indian cricket team, after years of being at the top of ICC ranking across formats. If losing to New Zealand at home grounds was a warning sign, the BGT gave full expression to the glaring weaknesses of a national side which, till recently, boasted the best bench strength among all cricketing nations.

Albeit such formidable bench strength might have helped build up a stand-alone T-20 side, bereft of players deployed for the Test and ODI sides, the BGT brought to the fore the shortcomings that are destined to plague the national side for the longer formats.

Besides captain Sharma’s abysmal fall in batting form, Kohil's performance has been under the scanner since the days after he was stripped of the captaincy. It is beyond doubt that their heydays are behind them for both their cricketing superstars and that their space in the playing eleven is at the expense of many deserving talents. That the other star batsmen, on paper, including K.L. Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, among others, have failed to impress with consistent performances immensely reveals the glaring shortage of reliable longer format mainstays in the Indian Test side.

Things are as bleak on the bowling side as the overload on Bumrah has been showing immensely on his constant injuries. Besides Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, the Indian bowling lineup seems to be starving for reliable pacers that could match the fierce lineup of the likes of the Australians or the English. 

Having invested much in T-20s and IPL in recent years, Indian cricket is suddenly feeling the hiccups of failing to develop a team architecture – including game builders, anchors and bench strength – that could flourish across formats. If anything, the BGT exposed these chinks in the armour.

What portends for the Indian Test team?

The consistent collapse of the top Indian batting order in Australia, particularly the inability of any of the batsmen to play an anchoring role, had triggered much debate in the mainstream and social media on the need to recall veteran batsman Cheteshwar Pujara or find a new mainstay who could replicate his role.

In the past two Australian tours, Cheteshwar Pujara, who played at the No. 3 position, unarguably had the biggest role in the series wins. Besides the amount of time he spent at the crease, wearing down the Australian bowlers, he took all the blows on the body of the short-pitched balls by Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood.

However, the strategy of ‘wearing out’ opposition bowlers seems to have worked against Pujara. His ‘slow scoring rate’ was no longer found conducive for international Test cricket, which is increasingly influenced by players like Yashaswi Jaiswal, Travis Head and Rishabh Pant known for their attacking games in all formats.

Even in the BGT of 2020, Pujara has a low strike rate of 29.20 with his half-century in the fourth Test match at The Gabba coming on 196 balls. Further, Pujara did not shine in the outings after the 2020 BGT, including in South Africa, other than a century against Bangladesh in 2022.

At 36 years, he is already considered beyond his primes with possibly slower reflexes and potential impact. Nonetheless, in a series where the Indian team was consistently bowled out below 200, his presence could have probably made some difference. Nonetheless, the takeaway from BGT is to explore newer talents and recall the veterans, be it Pujara or Ajinkya Rahane. 

The other major talking point would be about Virat Kohli. How he fell in the same fashion every single innings even prompted pacer Scott Boland to publicly remark that Australian bowlers would be aiming to channel in at the “5th stump” at Kohli. This weakness of chasing balls well wide of the off stump was Kohli’s Achilles Heel in the 2014 tour to England and seems to have returned lately.

Another highlight of the BGT was the abysmal form of Rohit Sharma, who, despite the consistent batting setbacks, has refused to quit just yet. Shubman Gill, his potential replacement in the batting order and possibly even the captaincy, has been in the team for 4 years. However, Gill’s performances in overseas games seem to be way below average (outside Asia average of 20), which continued in Australia as well.

With India touring England for 5 Tests in June-July this year, it becomes critical for selectors to invest in younger players rather than continuing to retain the ‘star players’ as a custom and portraying their indispensability. At least, the latter has been the case with some ‘star players’ including Gill, K.L. Rahul and even Rishabh Pant, all of whom have received far greater opportunities and consideration, unlike their peers who have shone in domestic cricket.

There are umpteen proven performers in the domestic circuit including the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudarshan as well as Dhruv Jurel, who was in the BGT squad but was not included in the playing eleven despite Pant’s inconsistent performances. The recent Test setbacks had prompted calls for the ‘star cricketers’ to return to the domestic circuit. Interestingly, the star cricketers, who long shunned domestic cricket, are reported to be finding the going tough in the Ranji outings. 

As the domestic season became live with Vijay Hazare and Ranji Trophy matches, there is currently much discussion about Karun Nair’s recent performances. At a stunning 389.5 average, Nair had scored centuries in all but three of his innings at the Vijay Hazare matches, while leading Vidarbha, and setting a record for most runs without being dismissed.

As one of the only two Indian batsmen to score triple hundreds in Tests, Nair’s career had never taken off in the international arena after that milestone. While he is in breathtaking form currently, it could be doubtful whether Indian selectors will prefer this 33-year-old in an anchoring role for the Test team, even if for a transitionary phase.

That he was overlooked for the Champions Trophy might be an indication that experienced players like Nair might not be in the BCCI’s scheme for things for the national side. While Test discards like Shreyas Iyer, Eswaran and Sudharshan might eventually form the upcoming Test team in the post Rohit-Kohli phase, it is worthwhile to have players like Nair, or for that matter, even Hardik Pandya, to preside over a transitionary phase until the newbies settle down in their respective roles in the new team setups.

Beyond the Indian experience, the BGT 2024-25 season would be remembered for its quality pace bowling and some close contests with extraordinary margins – 295 runs for India in Perth, 10 wickets, 184 runs and 6 wickets for Australia in Adelaide, MCG and SCG respectively.

The series win by 3-1 to Australia also meant the current WTC holders have reached the championship final in the 2023-25 season as well, where they will take on South Africa at the Lord’s from 11-15 June 2025. This also represents the first time in WTC history that the previous winner is there to defend the title.

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