With India’s Test summer leading up to the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Team India will look to get their best side for the tour Down Under and hopefully retain the title once again.
But the Australian side will be looking to get back against their Indian rivals and hopefully end their decade-long losing streak. The opening batter, Usman Khawaja relishes the opportunity to possibly take the fight to India in the upcoming five-match affair.
“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,” Khawaja said in an interview with Star Sports.
Indian fans have always viewed the Australian side as a dominant force making their victory over the Aussies even more special. Khawaja takes it as a respectful gesture and praised the Indian team for building up their infrastructure to make it one of the powerhouses within world cricket.
“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 commented.
“I think, yeah, 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,” he added.
Khawaja’s fellow teammate, the all-rounder Michell Marsh is also eager to be part of the contest between two of the best teams in the world seeing it as one of the most watched games in cricket. He believes that the two sides have some good relationships with each other having played in franchise cricket but still sees that both teams will be eager to take the win.
“I think it’s just the cricket that’s been played between the two teams. If you look at the history, the recent history, we’ve won stuff, they’ve won stuff. And I think that when it’s back and forth like that, it builds that rivalry within yourselves,” Marsh said.
“You know there are great friendships in the Indian team with our team, so there’s no hatred. But it’s a great on-field rivalry, both teams want to win. And Australia versus India, it’s another opportunity to grow the game of cricket. Not that cricket needs to grow in India, but worldwide. People tune into these big series,” he concluded.
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