Team India will lock horns against Australia for the 4 tests, 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is for the upcoming border-Gavaskar trophy. This will be the 15th edition of this rivalry so far team India has the upper over Australia team and the first ODI of this series will be at Sydney on 27th November which is day and night game. Playing against Australia in their own territory is not an easy task when the team is playing with experienced players even the team India captain is not available for the full tour which is another turnaround in this series. Team India will be having more pressure without the experienced players even when the series will start as they don't have a quality bowling attack compared to Australia team.
While on the other side Australia team looked more complete and strong from team India with the likes of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood and James Pattinson. These three strike bowlers will be key factors for Australia in the upcoming series. Even if we compare the batting division of both the teams Australia looked more better over team India with the likes of Warner, Steve Smith, Tim Paine and Marcus Labuschagne.
Having said that, let us take a look at the three players who will under pressure to perform in the series:
Mitchell Starc:
If you look at the two sides of the one name that looked above the rest then it would be none other than “Mitchell Starc”. The most complete left-arm fast bowler of the modern-day era when on song there is no better sight in the world with his reverse swing and toe crushing Yorkers to make the batsman dance on his tunes. Into the 30s the expectations from this lanky pacer is high who has been out of the action from the long time.
Mitchell Starc has also missed the recent 13th edition of IPL Tournament for the preparation of this upcoming series. Starc would be a match-winning factor for the Australia team in the series. Starc has a great record in red-ball cricket so far in his career and has taken 244 wickets in 57 tests at an average of 26.97 and played his last test against New Zealand in January 2020. Starc form post-hiatus has been not that good up to his standards and he will be definitely looking to make a statement in the upcoming series to the critics and selectors.
Also Read | Greatest All-Time ODI XI Of Australia
R.Ashwin:
An engineer turned cricketer and has already been out of the team in the red-ball cricket for the baised selective approach of the team management from the last 4-5 years. With the kind of consistency and wicket taking ability his numbers from the early days Ashwin could've been close to 600 wickets but it is 362 wickets in 70 tests at an average of 25.36 and took his 300th test wicket in 54th match of his career in 2018 and after then Ashwin was not regular into the team for the test series.
Currently Ashwin is 34 towards the end of his career and looking to end on high note with the kind of talent and hard work he has to give to fitting replies to the selectors and critics with his top-notch performance in the upcoming series after what they have done to his cut-short career. Ashwin has played his last white-ball cricket game for team India in 2017 along with the T-20 Cricket and after then he hasn't featured in any of one-day or T-20 games for team India.
Also Read | Greatest All-Time Test XI Of Australia
Shreyas Iyer:
There is too much dependent on this tour for this player, what's ahead for him in the coming 4-5 years. Iyer has been the ideal candidate for the team India captain after Virat Kohli will leave cricket or maybe in the coming years Iyer could've replaced him in the test and one-day cricket. On this tour Iyer name is not announced for the red-ball cricket but he will play the other two formats on the tour.
Currently Iyer is averaging 50 plus in ODIs and T-20 Cricket. With the series in Australia this will be an ideal opportunity for him to make the statement to be a dependable middle-order batsman for team India in the coming decade across the formats.
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