The Indian National Team will face Australia in the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test on February 9 in Nagpur.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is one of the most eagerly awaited Test series in history. The Indian national team has developed a fierce rivalry with Australia over the years, and every time the two teams meet, it is a spectacle to behold.
The first Test is set to begin on February 9 in Nagpur, and the Indian team has already begun their preparations. Australia has failed to defeat India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the past three years, and they will be looking to change that this time.
Australian batter Steve Smith recently spoke out about his team not playing any tour matches prior to the series. Smith believes that training alone would benefit Australia more than playing tour games on irrelevant Indian pitches. Ravichandran Ashwin took note of the Australian batter’s comments and labelled them as mind games, which the Australians are notorious for.
Australia is well-known for its mind games: Ashwin
According to Steve Smith, they practised on a green top in 2017, but the match was played on a rank turner. The right-handed batter believes that playing tour matches is pointless because the pitches differ from those used in practise.
Smith’s comments, according to Ashwin, are the type of cricket and mind games that the Australian team likes to play before a series. He also stated that the Indian team has previously avoided playing warm-up matches due to its hectic schedule.
“‘We got a green wicket in Brabourne and a completely opposite one in the first Test,’ Smith explained (during the 2017 series). To be fair, it was a crowd-pleaser in Pune. We could have given them the green route, but nobody plans for everything. However, Australia is known for their pre-series mind games and sledges. They enjoy doing so. It’s their brand of cricket “While previewing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on his YouTube channel, Ashwin said.
