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| The future stars debuting during Border-Gavaskar Trophy |
One of the greatest rivalries of the century started when
the mighty Aussies came to India in 2001. Then, the world number one team was
in an unstoppable winning streak demolishing every opponent’s in any given
playing surface. The resurgent Indian team after a heartbreaking match fixing scandal
was trying to find new faces to take the team forward. In the 3 match series at
home, India was already down 1-0 when they came to Eden Gardens where the
historic turnaround was awaiting. The Indian team were forced to follow on after
the first innings deficit of 274 runs. Following on, India posted a mammoth 657/7d
on the back of VVS Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180. Chasing 384 runs for
victory, the Australian’s were bundled out for 212 handing India, one of their
famous victories in their Cricket history. The Turbanator, Harbhajan Singh
announced himself in the World stage with a 13 wickets match haul including the
hattrick in the first innings. India went on to win the series 2-1 winning the
final Test at Chennai. Over the last twenty years, the Border-Gavaskar trophy
has been considered as the battle of heavy-weights. Since the inception of the
Border-Gavaskar trophy in 1996, the Indians are leading the series wins by 8
series to Australia winning 5 series and the 2003-04 series in Australia was a
draw. Indians are the current holder of the Border-Gavaskar trophy which they
won in 2018-19 in Australia. The ongoing series is currently tied up at 1-1,
and the two teams will be battling hard to win the bragging right in the
ongoing final Test at the Gabba.
While this is amongst the most awaited Test series, the
expectations form the players are also very high. It is definitely not easy for
a new comer to cope up with the pressure and the level of expectation. However,
due to varied circumstances, we were able to witness seven players who made
their debut during the course of the series and all of them were able to produce
some commendable performance.
1.
Cameron Green (Australia): Green made his debut in
the first Test as an all-rounder for Australia. He was not so much
required in the first Test, but was able to show at least his batting prowess
through his gritty 45 runs in the second innings of the second Test when the team was in a vulnerable position as well
as a quick fire 84 runs in the second innings of the third Test when the host
needed to up the scoring rate while setting a target. He was quite handy with
the ball in hand having a very sharp bouncer in his armory. However, his
bowling skills were not tested that much as three of their lead seam bowlers
were able to get the job done. Overall, he looks to be polished enough to
belong to the Test Cricket circuit.
2.
Shubman Gill (India): The 21 year old made his debut
in the second Test as an opener. The young talented batsman was under immense
pressure of delivering with his bat after a twin failure of his former U19 team
captain, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal in the first Test, specially after the
team was bundled out for only 36 runs in the second innings of the first Test.
Loosing his partner in the first over, he was able to show some class scoring an
elegant 45 in the first inning and an unbeaten 35 while chasing 70 runs to win
the Test. He followed up his good form scoring his maiden half century in the
first innings and followed it up with a 31 giving India a solid start with
Rohit Sharma in both innings of the third Test. Overall, he has impressed everyone with his
composure and attractive stroke play. Hope to see more of him in the future.
3.
Mohammed Siraj (India): The right arm medium
from India suffered a set back before the start of the series when he got to
hear the sad news of his father’s demise. The young fast bowler decided to be
with his team in anticipation of getting a Test cap. He was able to make his
debut in the second Test as Mohammed Shami was out with a broken wrist. The
seamer made quite an impressive debut picking up 2/40 and 3/37 in the first and
second innings respectively helping India win the Test. He continued his good
work during the third Test picking up David Warner in the first innings. He
again started the 4th Test picking up David Warner. The match is in
progress, we will be hoping to see repeat of his previous performance.
4.
Navdeep Saini (India): The tall fast bowler from
India got his Test cap in the third Test replacing an injured, Umesh Yadav. He
too impressed picking up two wickets in both innings. Unfortunately, he suffered
a groin injury during the first day of the fourth Test. We wish him a speedy
recovery.
5.
Will Pucovski (Australia): The stylish right-handed
batsman from Australia announced himself in the world stage with a half century
in the first innings giving a wonderful start to the hosts. Although, he was
not able to score many runs in the second innings, but the class shown in the
first innings definitely suggest that he will be there for a long time. Unfortunately, due to a shoulder injury, he is missing out playing the fourth Test at Gabba.
6.
T Natarajan (India): The incredible rise of T Natarajan
from a death over specialist in IPL, going with the team as a net bowler to becoming the first Indian player to make his debut in all three formats in the
same tour. Started off well getting the ball to swing, he was eventually able
to remove the two set batsmen including the centurion Marnus Labuschagne and
Mathew Wade. We hope to see more such bowling efforts.
7.
Washington Sundar (India): Initially, he stayed
back with the team as a net bowler after the limited over series were over. Suddenly
got a call up and here he is, playing the fourth Test replacing the injured,
Ashwin. Not much till now, but he was able to knock over Steve Smith by
building pressure by not giving away easy runs. He did a fairly decent holding
job with his nagging line and length.
We wish to see all these budding talents stamping their authority
as soon as possible.
By Sayandeep Dutta
View My Blogs at: https://stumpmiccricket.blogspot.com/
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