Australia skipper Pat Cummins believes the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is always fiercely competitive and both teams always have a 50-50 chance to win it. (More Cricket News)
"It's always fiercely competitive, and it always feels like it's 50-50. I'm 10 out of 10 excited for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy," he told Star Sport.
The Border-Gavaskar series, for the first time consisting of five Test matches, begins November 22 in Perth. Australia have not been able to win a Test series against India since 2014-15 and this fact remains on Cummins' mind.
"The last two series here in Australia, we haven't been successful, so it's been a long time. Hopefully, it's time to make amends," Cummins said. "You know, we've played them (India) plenty of times where they've beaten us, but we've also had plenty of wins against them as well, which we'll draw confidence from. The most recent Test match was, of course, the World Test Championship in neutral conditions, and we came out on top in that match. "
Australia's batting lynchpin Steve Smith too echoed his captain's thoughts.
"...You know, it's going to be a great series. You know, India have been playing outstanding cricket. We've been playing really good cricket the last couple of years. You know, we haven't beaten India in the last two times they've come out here," he said.
"Obviously got a terrific side, very well-balanced team, all bases covered. So, you know, they've played really good cricket out here. They've played good cricket when we've been over in India as well, where we know they're very, very difficult to beat. So it's going to be a big summer. It's going to be an exciting one."
Fiery Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc even compared the India-Australia Tests to Ashes.
"For Australian cricket, you've got the Ashes and then you've got the Border Gavaskar Trophy in there. I mean there's a long history in the Ashes but that Border Gavaskar rivalry, if you like, has just grown from strength to strength over each series.
"And now we see it as a five Test match series which is fantastic for not only the rivalry but for the Test series as well. Whether it's the calibre of player, the calibre of matches that we see as fans and as cricketers just continues to grow strength on strength each series," he said.
"Now (with) India obviously winning a number of series in a row, it's created even a bigger rivalry between the two countries. I mean both teams are well known to one another, we play each other very often across the formats, so I'm sure it'll be another exciting series," Starc added.
