India’s crucial home season begins in 17 days. After a long 43-day break, Men in Blue will be back in action. A two-Test match series against Bangladesh on home turf is the perfect preparatory series before the much-awaited Australia tour for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It will be comprising of five Tests, starting from November 22nd, which is expected to be nothing less than thrilling. After two successive series wins in Australia, Rohit Sharma led Team India will be eager to make it a hat-trick of series victory, while the Australian team desperate to win their first Border-Gavaskar Trophy in eight years will be keen to avenge their defeats.

Team India On The Look Out For Rahane-Pujara Replacements

The rivalry between India and Australia has been top-notch in the last year, as the two teams have played the final of the World Test Championship, the ODI World Cup, and the semi-final of the T20 World Cup. The next Test series already has all the makings of turning into another high-stakes affair being played in one of the toughest cricketing environments. The preparations have already started, and India will first up, start with the Duleep Trophy from September 5, featuring important players such as Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Sarfaraz Khan.

“Shubman Gill and Sarfaraz Khan… both of those batters have done really well against England in the home series that took place at the start of the year. I have a feeling both of them will definitely be on that flight to Australia and will be trying to do their best. We will know whether they’ll be able to replace Ajinkya and Pujara. Big shoes to fill but they have the quality and caliber in them,” Karthik said while answering a question on Cricbuzz.

Sarfaraz Khan And Shubman Gill Likely To Get Picked

With the selectors getting down to picking the final 15 in consultation with captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik has endorsed Sarfaraz Khan and Shubman Gill for the Australian tour end of the year. Both were among the standouts when India hosted the Test series early in the year to win it 4-1. Sarfaraz contributed 200 runs in three Tests, during which he made two fifties, while Gill scored 452 runs at 56.5, including two tons and two half-centuries.

Karthik opines,”Sarfaraz and Gill are best-placed to fill the gaping hole created since Pujara and Rahane’s exit.” But whether they can do justice to the legacy left behind by the two former mainstays of the Indian middle-order remains to be seen.