The Men in Blue may be in the middle, or one could say a rare 43-day break, but rest assured, once it resumes, an action-packed five months await. With a place in the World Test Championship on the line, Team India is set to play nine Test matches by the end of this year, commencing with two matches of the Test series against Bangladesh and ending it with five matches of the Test series against Australia in the historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Notably, it has been 33 years since India and Australia last competed in a five-match Test series, with the 1991–92 tour down under marking the last incident. Ever since, India has always played four Tests against Australia. However, this time with an extra match added, BGT is expected to be as big as The Ashes, and what better way to kick off the greatest cricketing rivalry of the modern-day era than a full-fledged Test series played across Australia's five Test centres? Interestingly, the Border Gavaskar Trophy has stayed in India, which is the only team in the history of Test cricket to register a back-to-back series win in Australia. Virat Kohli-led India won by 2-1 back in 2020-2021, which tuned out to be epic proportions as India scripted a historic comeback to take the series by 2-1 at the Gabba in Brisbane.

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I'm going to say 3-1 to Australia: Ricky Ponting

Despite this, former Australia cricketer Ricky Ponting feels that the outcome can be different this time, as he predicted the result in Australia's favour. The former Delhi Capitals coach predicted that Pat Cummins and his men would thwart Rohit Sharma and Co. by 3-1 to mark history.

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"It's going to be a competitive series and as I said I think Australia's got a bit of a point to prove against India in Australia on the back of what's happened the last the last two series here. I'm obviously going to tip Australia to win and I'm never going to tip against Australia. There will be a draw somewhere and there will be some bad weather somewhere, so I'm going to say 3-1 to Australia," Ponting stated on the ICC Review while being in conversation with Sanjana Ganesan.

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