"Indians love beating Australia in any sort of form of cricket" - Usman Khawaja on the upcoming 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Australian Test opener Usman Khawaja feels India's desire to defeat Australia in any form of the game intensifies the rivalry between the sides. India and Australia are set to clash over five Tests in the highly-anticipated 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting at Perth on November 22.
While the Aussies won the most recent meeting against India in the red-ball format at the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) final, the Asian giants have dominated the bilateral contests. India have beaten Australia in the last four bilateral Test series, including two down under in 2018/19 and 2020/21.
Speaking to Star Sports in the build-up to the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Khawaja said:
"We're world number one, world number two teams really over the last two years. We were there at the last World Test Championship together. The rivalry has always been huge. I take it as a sign of respect and I know that Indians love beating Australia in any sort of form of cricket. And the tradition that Australia has had over so many years as being one of the dominating teams in world cricket has staked that reputation."
He added:
"For Indians, it's always been the case to beat Australia. And more recently, you know, since the rise of India and IPL and everything else that happened, it's the same way with Australia against India. And particularly since India's beaten Australia in Australia the last two times they've come out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It just means a little bit more."
Khawaja was the leading run-scorer the last time the two teams met in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India last year. The southpaw scored 333 runs at an average of 47.57 on turning pitches with a century and two half-centuries.
"Lot of our players haven’t beaten India in a Test series" - Josh Hazlewood
Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood admitted several players in their current side have yet to taste a Test series win against India and hence called the upcoming series massive. Australia's last Test series win against India came in 2014/15 back home in what was Hazlewood's Test debut.
"Their top order, no matter who’s playing, is unbelievable, their top six or seven. I played them in my debut series, obviously, and we got the win, that might have been the last time. A lot of the same players are still playing, I think I got Virat that game. So a lot of our players, I guess, haven’t beaten India in a Test series," Hazlewood told Star Sports.
He added:
"The guys were playing, such as Travis Head, Cameron Green, guys like that. So, yeah, huge summer for us coming up and hopefully get that trophy back."
India and Australia are the top two of the current WTC standings by a wide margin and appear to be on course for a second consecutive WTC final clash next year.