The India vs Australia Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 is the talk of the town in the cricket fraternity currently. The first match of the series is all set to be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth from November 22 and both teams will look forward beginning the series with a win. Both India and Australia have been among the top performing teams in international cricket and they will want to maintain the rivalry in the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. While the fans are expecting a heated faceoff between both the teams on the field, statements from former cricketers ahead of the series have maintained the hype of the contest.
Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden the Australian selectors for picking inexperienced Nathan McSweeney as an opener for the all important BGT 2024-25 series. The Australian selectors were stuck in between names such as Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and Sam Conastas to open alongside Usman Khawaja. However, at the end, they went with young McSweeney whose most experience has been playing at number three.
Matthew Hayden said to ‘The Sunday Morning Herald’, “Now the Australian selectors have done exactly what I thought was going to happen, and that was back themselves into a corner, knowing that you had T20s and one-dayers right through the early part of 2024 and zero Test match cricket.”
Matthew Hayden also spoke on Steve Smith who was pushed in as an opener after David Warner’s retirement from Test format. However, he didn’t had the best of the times out their and at the end, he was shifted back in the middle order. Hayden said, “This is exactly my point and why I disagreed with Steve Smith opening the batting. It wasn’t a slight on Steve Smith’s career. It was more of a plea and call to action around the [domestic] system itself.”
The upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 will be very essential from the World Test Championship 2023-25 point of view. The Indian team needs to at least win four out of five matches to successfully qualify for the WTC final. However, it will be a very tough job for the Indian team as the Aussies are very deadly at home.
