“It’s one of the toughest challenges” - India’s coaching unit weighs in on importance of Border-Gavaskar Trophy

A little more than a week remains in the build up to the much-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the Indian cricket team having already started to go about their paces on Australian soil.

sIndia and Australia are two cricketing powerhouses, and with the series following quickly on the heels of the Indian team’s shocking 0-3 series whitewash to New Zealand, a lot of eyes will be on the visitors, who find a race against time to pick up wins and add some crucial points to their World Test Championship tally.

However, getting the job done for India will be far from easy against a strong Australian unit, and the visitors’ think-tank comprising of batting coach Abhishek Nayar, bowling coach Morne Morkel and fielding coach Ryan ten Doeschate pitched in with their opinions on how hard fought this series will be.

Nayar said, “It’s one of the toughest challenges for an Indian cricketer, coming here and overcoming it.”

Morkel added, “I think it's a showpiece on the international calendar. It's going to be teams that's not going to give anybody an inch or a sniff. And it's going to be hard-fought sessions.”

Nayar also shared an insider’s look into the preparations and said, “I think Gauti Bhai (Gautam Gambhir) chatted with the boys just before we started. He had some of the senior boys as well, Booms (Jasprit Bumrah), Virat (Kohli), Ash (Ravichandran Ashwin) all having, you know, chatted with the guys. How first they came here as youngsters with a lot of seniors around them. You know, how they sort of felt that once you finish the Australia series, you go back a better cricketer.”

Ten Doeschate weighed in on the history of the series and the importance of it as he quipped, “You know, it's become a big part of Indian cricket to come here and do well. It's obviously a very proud moment that India won twice earlier in the last two times, as well as winning in India.”

Morkel then concluded with a hope of positive things to come as he said, “I think a lot of the young boys are really keen, ready to go and hopefully make a name for themselves by the end of this tour. So I hope the next five Test matches are hard. You know, five days of cricket where you sit after the day's play, and you take your shoes off and you say, listen, I've given it all.”

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy starts off with the first of the five Test matches at Perth, from 7.30 AM IST on November 22nd.