BORDER GAVASKAR TROPHY
Australia last won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2014/15. © Getty
Australia’s master spinner Nathan Lyon has his sights firmly set on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India at home in November. The 36-year-old said the World Test champions are “hungry to turn things around against their opponents”, especially at home. Australia have been at the peak of their powers of late but have lost two consecutive home Test series to India.
The first time this happened was in early 2019, when Australia were without Steve Smith and David Warner due to ball-tampering bans. In the 2020/21 season, India recovered from the humiliation of a 36-0 defeat to win the four-match series in dramatic fashion 2-1 at Australia’s fortress, the Gabba. Australia has also had no success on its tours of India, last winning the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2014/15.
“It’s 10 years of unfinished business, it’s a long time and I know we’re extremely hungry to turn things around, especially here at home,” Lyon said. “Don’t get me wrong, India are an absolute superstar team and extremely challenging but I’m extremely hungry to turn things around and make sure we get the trophy back.”
Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who also suffered both home defeats, echoed Lyon’s sentiments. “There are quite a few players who have never beaten India in a Test series. That’s pretty amazing. That’s something we definitely need to tick off, especially at home – we should win pretty much every series here at home.”
Last time in Australia, the hosts finished second to an injury-plagued Indian team that sent out five players on debut in the last Test. So dire was the situation that Mohammed Siraj, who played his first Test in the second of the series in Melbourne, went into the fourth match in Brisbane as the most experienced bowler of the pack.
“In the last series we obviously knocked them out by 36 in Adelaide and we thought here we go, we’re back home and confident on this pitch. People say we played India B in the last Test but they can be stronger than the best team sometimes. They have incredible depth in all formats and we’re seeing that now,” Hazlewood said.
Lyon, however, said Australia were better prepared this time. “It feels like we’re a different team to a few years ago. We’re on the way to becoming a great Australian cricket team. We’re definitely not there yet, but we’re on the way and we’ve played some decent cricket.”
When the series begins in Perth on November 22, Australia will face another Indian newcomer – Yashasvi Jaiswal. The opener enjoyed a breakthrough series at home against England, scoring 712 runs in nine innings.
“I haven’t met him (Jaiswal) yet but it’s going to be a huge challenge for us bowlers,” Lyon said. “I watched the way he played against England and I thought it was pretty amazing. I had some really good conversations with (England spinner) Tom Hartley about the different ways he approaches it with different players, which I found quite interesting.”
“I love talking about cricket, so if I talk to someone who has played Test cricket, I might be able to learn something that I didn’t know. There is so much knowledge about this game that we can use at any time,” Lyon added.
Although a home win against India is high on the agenda, Hazlewood is also hoping Australia can reach their second consecutive World Test Championship final. The fast bowler missed the last one – against India in 2023. Australia are currently second behind India in the WTC table.
“It’s always going on in the background, we’re looking at the table to see where we are and what we need to do,” he said. “For me it’s a big issue because I couldn’t play the last one in England, so it’s a burning issue for me,” Hazlewood said.
© Cricbuzz
