Australia will tour India early next year for five Tests in the BGT 2027.
The five-Test BGT 2027 will be played from January 21 to March 3, 2027. Australia's marquee bowling group, comprising Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Nathan Lyon, will take on the young India batters.
The five Tests will be played at Nagpur, Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi, and Ahmedabad. Australia holds the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that they won 3-1 at home in 2025.
"Looking forward to it. That is probably one thing that I'm absolutely looking forward to, because I'm playing against Australia at home, and obviously it wasn't the best when we went to Australia. And for me, I think it is going to be India versus Australia, but before that, it is New Zealand. But the other challenge against Australia will be their experienced bowling attack.
They've got the likes of obviously Starc, Nathan Lyon, Cummins, and Hazlewood. Obviously, they've got so much experience of playing Test cricket against our young batting lineup. So, it's going to be a great experience for these guys,” Gambhir stated on JioStar.
“More importantly, in Test cricket, it's about the skill, but it's about how mentally strong you are and how much pressure you can absorb. The more pressure you absorb, and the more pressure you embrace, it's going to give you the best chance," Gambhir added.
Ahead of the Australia Test series at home, Gambhir said that Indian batters showed great patience and skills on their recent Test tour of Sri Lanka, given that they had enough time to prepare for the challenge.
"But you could see that in Sri Lanka, we played two Test matches, and we got more than 400 runs in both innings. And the reason was that we prepared extremely well. We went 10 days before the Test match; we could prepare by playing spin, and then you could see the results as well.
The thing is, I'm not going to give any excuses, but that's the reality. When we played the Test series against South Africa, we were coming after playing a T20 series from Australia. And we had two days before the first Test match. I remember coming from Brisbane, and then we reached Calcutta. We had two practice sessions, and we were straightaway into the Test match against South Africa,” Gambhir added further.
"Against the West Indies, obviously we did manage to win that series, but we came after winning the Asia Cup, and we had two days of practice sessions in Ahmedabad, and we were right straight into the Test match, and now you could see the difference.
When we went to Sri Lanka early, you could see the way guys played spin, because Sri Lanka isn't in easy conditions. In their own backyard, the weather, their spinners, and their experienced spinners against our batting lineup.
If you can get 400-plus in both innings in both the Test matches, that just shows that there is a lot of improvement happening. So, we will have to prepare well before New Zealand and before Australia, and obviously the focus is on spin. Yes, that's how well we can manage and how well we can negate spin," he explained.
Moreover, according to Gambhir, young players who have made a name for themselves through the national domestic system should focus on red-ball cricket rather than earning money from playing short-form cricket, exemplified by Devdutt Padikkal and Manav Suthar.
"Extremely important, because both of them are young, both of them are hungry, and both of them value Test cricket. It is so important for the next generation who's coming in to value Test cricket, because in today's day and age, with so much focus and so much of the limelight and so much of the monetary gains that are associated with T20 cricket, how we can keep Test cricket divine and above the other two formats is going to be key,” Gambhir said.
“Also, how much value a young generation or the new guys coming in gives—that red-ball cricket is going to be key. That's why I said a strong Test-cricketing nation is going to be a strong cricketing nation. When it comes to Manav and Dev, I think they value Test cricket; they're disciplined, hungry, and prepare really well.
And Manav, we've seen that I've got to give selectors and BCCI a lot of credit because of the way they've handled Manav, for the number of opportunities he's got, the way he's been groomed over such a long period of time, the number of A tours he's done and bowled in different conditions... So, my belief is that the better we prepare, the better opportunity we have to deliver," he concluded.
The three-match ODI series between India and West Indies will be played from September 27 to October 3.
(IANS inputs)