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The Border-Gavaskar Trophy ended on Sunday with Australia’s emphatic 3-1 victory over India, England’s two biggest opponents in 2025.
The series has become so close that many observers now see it as bigger than the Ashes, and the conversations it generates definitely rival, if not surpass, the frenzy of the oldest showdown in Test cricket.
India looked set for another famous victory on Australian soil after their first Test victory in Perth, but Pat Cummins’ team roared back and took advantage of some tepid knocks from the tourists to cement their place as the world’s best Test team. and all. but guarantees a place in the World Test Championship final in June at Lord’s.
But what have we learned from one of the most memorable Test series in recent times? Mail Sport points out 10 lessons.
1. These days, Australia-India is about more than cricket.
It is big business: nearly 850,000 spectators attended the five tests.
Australia recovered from 1-0 down to seal a thrilling 3-1 victory in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
Pat Cummins’ team have all but confirmed their place in the World Test Championship final
And it is about big egos, a clash between the traditional giants of sport and their economic power; Aggro on the field was inevitable.
The BGT also oils the wheels of social networks. Witness the bickering between the two sets of fans (although Indian fans really need to find an insult that doesn’t involve sandpaper).
Most of all, it confirms the pre-series suspicion that this is now the biggest show in town. The Ashes has a lot to live up to.
Almost 850,000 spectators attended the five rounds of the cycle held in Australia
2. India will never fulfill its terrifying potential until it stops putting its biggest names on pedestals.
Before the series began, this column argued that their “overreliance on seniority will likely cost them in the coming weeks.”
Sure enough, Rohit Sharma averaged six, then dropped, while Virat Kohli scored a century in the second innings in Perth when India were already out of sight, but otherwise averaged 10.
Since the beginning of 2020, he has an average lower than Zak Crawley.
Will the selectors sever their ties when choosing the team for the tour of England? Don’t bet on it.
India will never reach its potential as long as it keeps its oldest icons on a pedestal (pictured: Virat Kohli, left, and Rohit Sharma, right)
3. India has other problems
Based on developments in Australia, only five names can be signed with confidence for the first Test at Headingley on June 20: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and, if fit, Mohammed Shami.
Ravindra Jadeja can play if they want a spinner, although Washington Sundar is putting a lot of pressure on him. Fast bowling should be fine.
But who is going to score the runs in conditions that have given them just nine Test wins out of 67 since their first visit to England in 1932?
Rishabh Pant is one of five players whose names can be confidently tattooed for the series opener against England this summer.
4. It turns out that Australians are a lot like an opening batsman taking the new ball in reverse (as long as that batsman is one of their own)
The brouhaha surrounding Sam Konstas’s incandescent 60 in his first Test innings at the MCG was proof that, deep down, even a batting culture as conservative as theirs has room for adventure.
But an intriguing scenario emerges: If Ben Duckett overtakes Konstas next winter, will the hosts have to be less dismissive of Bazball?
Because until Konstas had fun on Boxing Day, they held their noses.
Australia’s Sam Konstas showed that even a batting culture as conservative as theirs has room for adventure.
5. In two crucial areas, Australia revamped its team, as it must if it is to get off to a good start in the Ashes: not just Konstas, but also all-rounder Beau Webster, whose successful debut at the SCG may have spelled the end for Mitchell . Swamp
However, can the slow-motion struggles of Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne (both averaging 20s against India, with strike rates in the 40s) be tolerated for another 12 months?
It doesn’t help that Steve Smith, who ended up abandoned in 9,999 tests, is also nearing the end. Australia has to strike a delicate balance.
Steve Smith finished the Border-Gavaskar series left precariously at 9,999 Tests
6. Can we stop for a moment and say hello to Jasprit Bumrah?
The only bowler in Test history with 200 wickets at an average of less than 20, he was the closest thing to a one-man attack since Richard Hadlee’s New Zealand brought in Graham Gooch to salute “the World XI at one end and Ilford second at the other. .
And if that may be a bit harsh on Siraj, then Bumrah’s 32-wicket haul at 13 was one of the great performances by a visiting bowler in Australia. Without him, Australia would have been 5-0.
Jasprit Bumrah is the only bowler in Test history with 200 wickets at an average of less than 20
7. Sunil Gavaskar, the great Indian opener turned acid commentator, never stops complaining, even when he says he is not moaning.
Let’s look at his claim that Indians don’t complain about the fields, only to suggest that “cows could have grazed” on the surface of the SCG.
Fortunately, his knee-jerk assessment of Pant’s dismissal in the first innings in Melbourne (“Stupid, stupid, stupid!”) did not deter Pant from hitting 61 off 33 balls in Sydney, one of the innings of the series.
And it seemed fitting that even when it was all over, Gavaskar continued to murmur, this time because he was not part of the ceremony to present the trophy that bears his name.
8. Scott Boland can be lethal
English fans already knew this, after he marked his Test debut with figures of six for seven in Melbourne four years ago.
But he can also be hit, something that English fans also knew: in the 2023 Ashes, he averaged 115 with the ball and disappeared with almost five overs, Australia’s most expensive seamer.
In the last three Tests against India, he was allowed to set his pace and did so majestically. If England make the same mistake next winter, he will dictate terms once again.
Scott Boland showed that he can be lethal when allowed to pace himself with the ball in his hand.
9. The extra shellac on the Kookaburra ball made life as difficult for the spinners as it was for the opening batsmen.
Nathan Lyon took all nine wickets, while Ravichandran Ashwin retired midway through the series and Ravindra Jadeja took four wickets with 54.
Will England really need Shoaib Bashir for the five Ashes Tests? Or should they play to their bowling strengths and use Joe Root’s breaks to give the quicks a breather?
If, by the first Test in Perth, Bashir still feels like the “work in progress” we keep hearing about, the Root option will look increasingly attractive.
10. England won’t mind admitting it, but Australia continue to up their game when it matters.
By regaining the BGT, they assumed possession of all bilateral Test trophies at their disposal.
They are world one-day champions, have reached the final of the World Test Championship and are at the top of the Test rankings.
It could be the year that defines the Bazball project. A trip to Australia will be as hard as possible.
2024: the year of Test cricket cracker
In 2024, Test cricket continued to throw cookies. The West Indies won at the Gabba, Sri Lanka at the Oval. Pakistan came from behind to beat England and New Zealand won 3-0 in India.
South Africa, to the despair of the countries that barely bothered to play them, reached the final of the World Test Championship.
The West Indies beat Australia at the Gabba in one of the stories of the year in Test cricket.
None of this has stopped a few greedy executives from overreacting to the financial success of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and demanding that Australia, India and England play each other even more often than they already do.
Needless to say, the appeal of these five-game series is already threatened by hype.
What do these geniuses want? End Test cricket for good?
Neutrals will have no choice but to hope South Africa beat Australia at Lord’s this summer and remind the money grabbers that there is life beyond the Big Three.
Boycotting Afghanistan would make no difference
More than 160 MPs have signed a letter to the ECB demanding England withdraw from next month’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan in Lahore in protest at the Taliban’s brutal repression of women.
The impulse is understandable, but it won’t make the slightest difference.
Boycotting the Champions Cup match against Afghanistan won’t make the slightest difference
The Taliban don’t care at all about world opinion: boycotting Afghanistan’s men would simply end cricket there entirely, without changing the political dial.
Instead, the focus should be on allowing Afghanistan’s women cricketers to establish a home away from home in Australia, where many of them now live.
It will have the added advantage of annoying the Taliban.
Since sending a C team to New Zealand, South Africa have been in fantastic form.
Test cricket is not dead yet in South Africa
When South Africa sent a C team to New Zealand early last year, it seemed as if they had lost interest.
Since then, they have won seven and drawn one, with their captain Temba Bavuma averaging over 60 with the bat, and Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen and spinner Keshav Maharaj combining for 100 wickets with 20.
Test cricket is not dead yet.