The first match of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Test series that will pit the world’s No. 1 team, Australia, against India, will kick off on Thursday (February 9) in Nagpur. The red-ball series is expected to be a cracker of a contest as both India and Australia have a number of players who can make the series an exciting contest to watch out for. On one hand, the Aussies have four batters and three pacers in the ICC’s top-10 rankings, while India have not lost a Test series at home since 2013 and are a force to be reckoned with.
Ahead of the start of the Test series, many former greats from both Australia and India have made their predictions about the winner of the series. While the Indian experts back the hosts to win the series, the Aussie greats like Jason Gillespie, Mark Waugh, and Adam Gilchrist have predicted that the Baggy Greens will go all the way and beat India and win the first Test series in India since 2004.
But according to former Australian captain and legendary batter Ian Chappell, looking at the track record of India in India, predicting a series win for Australia is a silly thing to say.
“Honestly, I don’t worry too much about the media because a lot of them don’t know what they are talking about. But there have been ex-players who’ve said that Australia are favourites. Well, I think that’s a pretty silly thing to say,” Chappell told ESPNCricinfo.
In the last 19 years, Australia has only won one Test in India. They suffered a 0-2 defeat in the four-match Test series that was played in 2008–09 and a 0-2 defeat in the two-match series in 2010–11. In 2012–13, Australia, for the first time in their history, suffered a 0–4 defeat in the four-match series against any opponent. During their last Test tour of India, which was six years ago in 2017, the Aussies started the series by winning the first match but suffered defeat in two out of the next three matches.
