Legendary Australian national cricket team batsman Steve Waugh has ignored Indian national cricket team captain Rohit Sharma in picking two players who will be key to India’s success in the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The upcoming edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be played in Australia. The opening clash of the series will be played in Perth from November 22, and the second pink-ball Test match will be played in Adelaide from December 6. The remaining matches will then be held in Brisbane (December 14-18), Melbourne (December 26-30) and Sydney (January 3-7).

When India travel to Australia, they will be looking to extend their dominance over the Aussies in Test cricket while the Pat Cummins-led side will be looking to end India’s winning streak in BGT.

The Men In Blue are on a four-match winning streak, having lost their last Border-Gavaskar series in 2014-15 and their last home defeat to BGT was in 2004-05. Moreover, India have won ten series in the rivalry, compared to Australia’s five.

Meanwhile, legendary batsman Steve Waugh claimed that the upcoming Test series will be epic and the tourists will have a great chance of winning it due to the strong bowling attack they have. Steve Waugh stated:

“It will be a good series with two very good teams, very evenly matched. India have a good chance of winning in Australia because they have a very strong bowling attack.”

The key will be Jasprit Bumrah’s performance with the ball and Virat Kohli’s performance with the bat – Steve Waugh

Steve Waugh further said that India has a quality bowling attack with players like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in their ranks.

However, Steve Waugh is of the view that the performances of bowling great Jasprit Bumrah and batting legend Virat Kohli will determine the outcome of the series for India.

“With Bumrah, Siraj and Shami, they have an excellent pace attack and they also have a lot of good bowlers like Jadeja, Ashwin and Kuldeep, but the key will be Jasprit Bumrah’s performance with the ball and Virat Kohli’s performance with the bat. Bumrah is an excellent bowler, the more wickets he takes, the better are India’s chances of winning the series,” Waugh told IANS.

“We have seen Virat’s performance away from home. The Indian batting is dependent on him, so he will be in charge. However, Australia also has a very good team, with a strong bowling attack. So, with two high-quality teams, I expect it to be an excellent series,” added Steve Waugh.

It is noteworthy that Australia and India met in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2023, and there is a strong possibility that these two teams will meet once again in the final of the WTC 2025 at Lord’s.

Currently, India occupies the no.1 position in the ICC World Test Championship points table with a PCT of 68.52, while Australia is at the second position with a PCT of 62.50.