3 player battles to watch out for in Australia vs India 1st BGT 2024-25 Test ft. Virat Kohli vs Pat Cummins
Cricket is a team sport only for physical education books. In reality, it's won via multiple individual battles, where each player's unique traits, skillsets, and mentality, trained selfishly are the only things that help him. The team has a role to play, sure, but it's generally more of a hassle than an advantage.
So while the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be touted as a contest between a struggling plus unavailabilities-hit India and a vengeful Australia at home, it'd be decided by how each competitor wins his battle. These small duels would stack up to session, day and Test wins to eventually shape the series.
Below, we have picked the three most important of these. Check them out:
#3 Rishabh Pant vs Nathan Lyon
A major reason behind India's wins in the last two Border-Gavaskar Trophy series was how well they tackled Australia's metronome spinner, Nathan Lyon. The two key men for that were Cheteshwar Pujara, who'd either shut him down or use his feet expertly to milk singles, and Rishabh Pant, who took him on and unsettled him.
Pujara isn't there this time and India's troubles against spin are at an all-time high. Lyon is an expert in cleaning up the middle-to-lower-order wickets - as he did in the World Test Championship final when Pant was injured - and Pant is his ballast, how the wicketkeeper manages the off-spinner will again be decisive.
Lyon won this battle in 2018-19 as Pant averaged 30 against him, getting out 4 times. But the southpaw hit back in 2020-21, getting out just once and averaging 107. On both occasions, like always, luck was a huge factor but you can expect a fresh Lyon and an in-form Pant to do everything in their power to direct their destiny.
#2 Jasprit Bumrah vs Steven Smith
For several reasons, Indian and Australian cricket fans have been slightly deprived of the Jasprit Bumrah-Steven Smith battle, across formats.
In Tests, during the 2018-19 series, Smith was banned, and in the 2022 edition in India as well as the WTC final, Bumrah was out injured. They only came across in three Tests in the 2020-21 series where Bumrah got Smith out once and the Aussie right-hander averaged 52 overall, scoring seven boundaries.
This time, Bumrah is fit and well-rested while Smith showed signs of his impeccability in the recent ODI series against Pakistan. The Indian quick's pace, seam movement, reverse swing and smarts going against Smith's robust technique and hunger for runs would be a treat to watch.
Both would want to prove themselves against the best player from the opposition and would have studied each other's rare weaknesses. This would be the one true test for the two all-time greats for their respective countries.
#1 Pat Cummins vs Virat Kohli
Talking about battles between all-time greats being pivotal for a series/tournament, there's also Pat Cummins going against Virat Kohli. India mourned one such battle only on Tuesday (November 19) on the first anniversary of Cummins making a sizzling Kohli play one onto his stumps in the 2023 men's World Cup final.
The Australian captain has had an edge over Kohli in Tests too. He got him out on the first (and only one for that series) ball in the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, thrice in 2018-19 and in the only Test that Kohli played in 2020-21.
But all is not doom and gloom for India. We are talking about Perth after all. Cummins got him out in the 2018 Test at the Perth Stadium but not before Kohli had scored one of his best overseas Test centuries -- 123 (257).
Overall, the Indian maestro has scored 254 runs here in four innings at a superb average of 64.8. Cummins, too, has excellent numbers here -- 16 wickets at 23.7 -- which just sets us up for probably a 2018-esque clash-of-titans.
There aren't more versatile bowlers than Cummins in Tests and his stamina, combined with his sharp mind and execution would be Kohli's biggest challenge in years, and an even tougher one considering his form. But there's no one better to recover from a backs-on-the-wall situation with flying colors than him either.
If Kohli has one more comeback left in him, buckets of popcorn will fall short for this one.