The first Test between Australia and India to begin in Perth on November 22.
Former Australia captain Tim Paine predicted which team will start as favorites to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024. India and Australia will clash in a five-Test series down under for the first time since 1991-92.
The series more or less will also decide the finalists for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, set to be played at the Lord's Cricket Ground in June 2025.
Both India and Australia are aiming to qualify for the final. Rohit Sharma and his teammates' chances suffered significantly after India lost its first home Test series in 12 years, falling to New Zealand in an embarrassing loss in the Pune Test.
Tim Paine, under whom Australia lost two series against India (2018-19 and 2020-21), feels Australia would start as clear favorites in the forthcoming series against India.
He also believes Mohammed Shami will be a significant loss for the visitors, and Jasprit Bumrah has a lot on his plate. He claimed that if Bumrah fails to perform throughout the series, India's chances of winning another series in Australia are over.
"Australia are going to start pretty strong favourites. I think India has not been playing pretty well, their batting looks a little brittle. So, Australia's batting does not look amazing in terms of output, but we know they have got the quality.
Shami is going to be a huge difference, Bumrah, there is so much on his shoulders. If he gets hurt, then it's curtains for me," Tim Paine said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.
Tim Paine also made a few jokes about New Zealand defeating India in the ongoing three-match Test series. The former Australia captain claimed that Rohit Sharma and his teammates committed too many mistakes, which led to New Zealand catching on.
"No. They (New Zealand) are not very good. Is that harsh? Unbelievable performance, no doubt about that. But that makes me worry a little about India, totally honest. Coming to Australia, without Mohammed Shami as well, but New Zealand has always been an amazing team at scrapping and getting the best out of themselves if you make a mistake," said Tim Paine.
"And I think, India made far too many mistakes in the series. New Zealand's catching was unbelievable, hats off to them but if they were to play Australia in Australia right now, is it going to go well for them? No," he added.
Tim Paine cited the example of Cheteshwar Pujara and stated that there is still scope for batters to grind it out in testing phases during a Test match.
"What I do remember, is a lot of people talk about Rishabh Pant in the last series in Australia, but the guy who won them the series was Pujara. He wore us down, he wore our fast bowlers down. He kept getting hit on the body, but he kept getting up. There is still a place for that in Test cricket," said Tim Paine.
The BGT 2024 will get underway on November 22 with the first Test to be played in Perth.
(Hindustan Times inputs)