India are set to face Australia in a five-match Test series, starting November 22. The series, known as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, is crucial for the Indian cricket team as it has its World Test Championship (WTC) final fate hanging on it. Visitors India need to win 4-0 in Australia to qualify for the summit clash comfortably, otherwise they will have to depend on various other results. Ahead of the all-important series, India head coach and former player Gautam Gambhir was asked on JioCinema to name the player, who could bat for 11 hours to defend a Test match. Gambhir replied "All the top seven."
Test series against Australia is a transformative experience after which an individual "goes back a better cricketer" is what head coach Gambhir and some of the star senior players have been trying to instill in the younger members of the team on their first tour 'Down Under'.
It will be a baptism of fire for several young Indian players, with the visitors naming as many as eight squad members who have never played a Test match on Australian soil.
The likes of Yashaswi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, and Prasidh Krishna, all of them on their maiden tours will have plenty to prove during the marquee series.
And who better than the troika of Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, both on their fifth Test tours (2011-12, 14-15, 18-19, 20-21) and Jasprit Bumrah, who is on his third red ball tour (2018-19, 20-21) to share their invaluable learnings from the past series.
"Gauti bhai (Gambhir) had a chat with the boys just before we started, we had some of the senior boys as well," Nayar said in video posted by bcci.tv. on Thursday.
"Booms (Bumrah), Virat , Ash (Ashwin) having a chat with the guys how first they came here as youngsters with a lot of seniors around and how they sort of felt that once you finish an Australia series you go back a better cricketer."
"I think the young boys are very keen, raring to go and hopefully make a name for themsleves bu the end of this tour.
"It's one of the toughest challenges for an Indian cricketer coming here and overcoming it, Nayar added.
(With PTI Inputs)