Australia’s veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon has identified Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant as India’s big three batters ahead of this year’s Border Gavaskar Trophy series, starting from November 22 in Perth.

The 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy will further see India and Australia squaring off in Adelaide (pink-ball game), Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney respectively till January 7, 2025. It will also be the first five-match Test series between India and Australia since 1991/92.

India has won 2-1 in the last two Border-Gavaskar Trophy series happening in 2018/19 and 2020/21 in Australia.

“Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant are probably going to be the three really big ones. But then you’ve still got Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Jadeja, and who else will come out—another five, I’m not sure,” said Lyon to Star Sports.

Kohli, the talismanic right-handed batter, has amassed 1,352 runs, including six centuries and four fifties at an average of 54.08 in 13 Test matches in Australia. On the other hand, India skipper Rohit has scored 408 runs in seven Tests in Australia, including three fifties.

Pant, the left-handed wicketkeeper-batter, has scored 624 runs in seven Tests in Australia, and averages 62.4, including hitting a century and two fifties. Lyon, who has picked 530 Tests in 129 matches, feels Australia will have to be at their best to challenge the defence of Indian batters in the marquee series.

“But it’s a pretty amazing line-up they’ve got, so it’s going to be a massive challenge. As I said, if we, as a bowling group, are good enough for long periods, hopefully, we can challenge their defence,” he added.

Before the marquee series happens, India A will play two four-day matches against Australia A at Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay (October 31 Oct to November 3) and the MCG (November 7-10), followed by an intra-squad India match to take place at the WACA Ground, Perth from November 15-17 ahead of the first Test at Perth Stadium.

McDonald says top six likely to remain the same: Australia coach Andrew McDonald thinks the top six batsmen who finished the last Test season are likely to start the much-anticipated five-match series against India later this year, but not necessarily in the same order.

Steve Smith moved up from number four to open the batting after the test retirement of David Warner midway through last season and McDonald said it was by no means certain he would stay there.

“While we’ve got an eye to it, we haven’t made any firm decisions around that one,” McDonald told SEN radio from England on Wednesday.

“We’ve already had some chats in Sydney initially around what we’re thinking for the summer, and that goes right down to depth bowling and all those hypotheticals and ‘what-ifs’ that we always go through.

“Clearly, if we make a shift with Steve Smith, then someone else will have to go to the top. We’ve seen Cameron Green be really successful at number four as well. So that adds layers to the decision-making.

“But nothing is firm and fixed at the moment.”

While Smith hardly set the world on fire in his outings as an opener, Green scored 174 not out against New Zealand at number four in the last series of last season.

Regardless of what the selectors decide about whether Smith opens, his place in the side alongside Green, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh looks assured.

“We’ve spoken about that, and we’re still a big believer in the best six batters,” he added.

Agencies