Australia holder of WTC Championship wrapping up the Border Gavaskar Test Series against India 3-1 after winning the low scoring 5th Test by 6 wickets set a date for the WTC Final in June 2025 at Lords with South Africa. South Africa winning the first of two tests against Pakistan earlier confirmed the berth. 

It does not matter what happens in the second South Africa -Pakistan test match now in progress. It also will not matter whether Australia win or loose the upcoming test series against Sri Lanka. Winning today at SCG Australia has also recovered Border -Gavaskar trophy losing the previous four over the past ten years.  

WTC Points Table as on 05/01/2025 

Border Gavaskar Series Witnessed Highest Audience: 

Whatever be the outcome of the series the just concluded Australia India test series witnessed some fascinating contest with the largest ever cricket enthusiasts witnessing the tests at MCG and SCG. The tests were played with pacy bouncy wickets. Australia having greater depth of quality pace bowlers overwhelmed India though Jasprit Bumrah appeared as the most difficult bowler to negotiate for the Australians.  India surprisingly won the first test at Perth. Australia bounced back at day night pink ball test at Adelaide. Rain rescued India from the jaws of defeat at Brisbane. Australia won at MCG and SCG. Indian test level nosedived after unexpected 3-0 whitewash by the Kiwis at home and 3-1 series loss against Australia. India after reaching the first two WTC finals failed to qualify for the first time. We are sure there will be lot of postmortems of the failure of India.

Indian Captain Rohit Sharma did not play the first match at Perth Test staying on parental leave. India surprisingly won the low scoring test on the bouncy Perth surface mainly due to high quality pace bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and brilliant batting by Young Jaiswal and Kohli. The first and the second test had a long gap. Australia regrouped and regained composure.  The second test at Adelaide Oval was the day night pink ball test. Australia won easily bouncing back. Rohit joined the team. But neither Rohit nor Kohli could make major contributions. Travis Head blasted Indian attack.  The series was levelled.The third test at Brisbane was again dominated by Australia with Indian batting failing to cope with Australian quality bowling attack. Rain on almost three days rescued India from a possible defeat.

Boxing day test at MCG created unprecedented interest as 70,000 plus crowd witnessed intriguing contest of the bat and the ball. Steve Smith batted brilliantly setting steep winning target for the Indians though Jaiswal and Nitish Reddy also batted bravely. No other Indian bowler could assist Bumrah as the lion-hearted Indian alone fought single handed. Australia winning big moved to 2-1 lead. The batting form of Rohit and Virat became a matter of worry. For Australia Cummins, Starc and Boland were relentless on bowling friendly wicket. Young Sam Konstas on debut took the attack to Bumrah playing some aggressive unorthodox strokes – reverse scoop.
 
The last test at SCG became do or die for India. Indian captain Rohit Sharma opted out under bitter criticism of Indian media bringing in Shubman Gill rested at MCG. India also had to include Prasidh Krishna for injured Akash Deep Singh. Australia also replaced under performing Mitchell Marsh with Tasmanian all-rounder Beu Webster. SCG wicket traditionally assist spin. But this time grass covered SCG wicket with steep bounce and seam appeared very spicy. India winning the toss perhaps did not do it right to bat first. Scot Bolland, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc exploiting the wicket made life extremely difficult for Indian batsmen. Even Webster as fourth seamer bowled well. Even then talented Jaiswal batted brilliantly. Unfortunately, he was run out for a misunderstanding with Virat Kohli.  

Kohli was looking good for a while but fell again poking at a ball well out of his off stump. Rishabh Pant kept his cool for a long time but fell to a trap set by smart Pat Cummins. India could post 185. Indian attack spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah bowling as a team restricted Australia to 181 though Bumrah left the field for recurrence of back spasm. Debutant Webster standing among ruins of Aussie batting scored 57. The brilliance of Scott Bolland and Pat Cummins again ruined Indian batting in the second. Only flamboyant Rishabh Pant playing in his natural style scoring 61 off 33 balls gave India a slight ray of hope. India finishing 157 all out gained 161 runs lead. Unfortunately, champion Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah could not bowl. 

It could be a bit more challenging for Australia as wicket was still assisting pace bowlers. Indian pacers Siraj and Prasidh lacked discipline at the start which Sam Konstas exploited. However, Pradish recovering got rid of Konstas, Labuchagne and Smith set cat among the mice. Usman Khawaja, after looking good for his 41 fell to Siraj. Travis Head and Webster counter attacking tired Indian attack raced to 162/4 in 27 overs. Debutant Webster, after his 57 runs in the first Innings remained unbeaten on 39. Head also scored an unbeaten 34. Australia winning the test regained Border Gavaskar series after 10 years. They also sealed a place for the WTC final.

Scott Boland, who would not have played at all in the series if Josh Hazlewood had not been injured taking 10 wickets in the test became player of the match. Jasprit Bumrah for the superlative bowling in the series earned man of the series. In retrospect we may conclude that India was outplayed in the series for Virat could not lead. On the other hand, Smith and Head played to the best of their ability.  Two Australian debutants Sam Konstas and Beu Webster did their job well. India in red ball cricket has shown signs of depletion getting whitewashed at home against New Zealand and losing 3-1 to Australia. Indian team think tank must explore right talents with right frame of mind for batting per requirement of longer version cricket against quality opposition on spicy wicket. They must also find bowlers who can adjust to changing conditions smartly. Australia was by far the better side. 

BDST: 1720 HRS, JAN 5, 2025
MN