Is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 going to be the swansong series for the OGs of Team India?
R Ashwin’s retirement in the middle of the BGT series in Australia came as a shock to many fans and people in the cricketing fraternity. Media has been buzzing with theories as to what all happened behind the scenes that led to this ‘abrupt announcement’, but there is still a series to be won. Ashwin was anyway looking off-colour for quite some time, and it would be fair to say that he is not the only senior whose place in the playing XI is in question.
The series is at 1-1 after three Tests, and with two to go, it is still wide open for both teams. Rohit Sharma’s batting in red-ball cricket has not been that great. Since 2013, when Rohit started his Test career, his batting average in overseas Tests has been a mere 32, and the same drops to 26.6 in Australia. In fact, he is averaging less than 10 in this series! Rohit, having lost his opening slot to the in-form K L Rahul, is unable to make an impact even at no. 6. Cricket buffs will never forget the 3-0 drubbing against the Kiwis that Team India suffered under his leadership just last month. Rohit has looked clueless with his leadership both in the home series against New Zealand as well as in this BGT tour. Enough reasons for Rohit to consider calling it a day before the critics start wagging their tongues.
Traditionally, Virat Kohli has had some memorable performances against Australia, but the recent records tell another story. If we look at his red ball record in Australia since 2018, Virat has scored just 486 runs in 14 innings at an average of 37 odds. If you exclude the hundreds in Perth, i.e., 123 in 2018 and 100* now, Virat’s average drops to a shocking 18.7 in the remaining 12 innings. Virat clearly looks past his prime and was ordinary with the bat, even in the home series against New Zealand. Should Virat think about retiring from red-ball cricket after the BGT is a good point of discussion.
The transition phase needs to be seamless else the performance of the team will be impacted. We saw Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, and Umesh Yadav gradually getting ‘phased out.’ The New Zealand series at home was the first major indication that the Indian team management has to think of building a new core. The OGs, i.e., Virat, Rohit, Ashwin, and Jadeja, obviously looked past their prime, and it would be ideal that they plan a dignified retirement instead of being hinted at from the outside. Looks like Ashwin has started that process.
The good news for Indian cricket is that there is a ‘’Gen-Ex waiting in the wings. Washinton Sundar is the automatic successor for Ashwin. Similarly, Axar Patel will be a like-for-like swap for Jaddu. Kuldeep Yadav will be back. Young Turks like Devdutt Paddikkal, Dhruv Jurel, and Sarfaraz Khan are in the pipeline. So, in the press conference, when Bumrah mentioned about ‘transition phase,’ that might just be a hint that ‘Ro-Ko’ is likely to move on soon!
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