Discussing the upcoming 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy, Australia great Matthew Hayden here said that the Australian team is in a transition period and vulnerable at the top, with the need for a new opening batter to replace David Warner.

“Well, it’s a time in Australian cricket where it’s a transition period. And so, we’re vulnerable at the top. I was very forthright in saying this, Steve Smith should never have been the opening batter for Australia. And I still believe that’s the case.

“So, we are on the lookout for, I believe, another opening batter to replace the great David Warner, who’s had an exceptional career. He really, I feel, built on the legacy that JL (Justin Langer) and I created in our period. He went better. Whereas our strike rate was 65 to 70, Dave Warner was 80 and sometimes more,” he said during the panel discussion on the India-Australia cricket with the legendary Sunil Gavaskar and former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh at the launch of the Australia-India ‘Summer of Cricket,’ organised by the Australian Consulate in partnership with Cricket Australia (CA) and the Centre for Australia-India Relations.

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“It’s really a battle of the top order. And Australian cricket has put itself in a position where it’s kind of got no further games to really anticipate what it’s going to look like ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. So, that’s the only question mark. If I were to do a SWOT analysis on us as a group, that would be my only question mark,” he added.

India is set to play five Tests at the Perth Stadium, Adelaide Oval, Gabba, Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) from November 22 to January 7.

“I’ve played in three-match series and that’s not enough. Four’s an awkward number. You can’t get your teeth into it. But five has just got it all on the line.

“You can get behind in the series. You can come back in the series. And that’s why the Ashes, which has now been reduced to five or six, is still a great series. Because it sways in roundabouts. And you have to be up for it because it’s a long tour,” said Hayden.

Asked for his wish list for the series, Gavaskar said: “My wish list is, obviously, India should continue to be winning us three in Australia – twice they’ve won now, and so for the third time as well.

“Hope it’s a good, close series with the matches going into the fifth day. A lot of Test matches finish in three-and-a-half, four days. A five-day Test would be fantastic for everybody concerned. I just hope that happens because that means that it won’t be one-sided. It will mean that the balance of power will move from day one to day two.

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“Test matches in the earlier days used to be like an Indian soap. So, on the first day, the mother-in-law is the boss; on the second day, the daughter-in-law is the boss, and on the third day, the mother-in-law is the boss. That’s what happens in Indian TV serials. Something like that you want to see, where Australia and India keep on dominating for four days alternately, and maybe on the fifth day the team that has really got that greater desire goes out and wins. That would be, obviously, the wish list, and all five Test matches should have a result. That would be absolutely fantastic. In the 1977 India-Australia series, Australia won 3-2. You just want that kind of a situation where you have a result in every game.

“On an individual level, maybe for Virat Kohli, who’s got four centuries on four different venues, that he becomes the third overseas player who’s scored a century in all the Australian venues. I think he doesn’t have one at the Gabba. I think he’s got it everywhere else. So if he gets a century at the Gabba, that means he joins me and Alastair Cook as the third overseas batter to have got a century at all the Australian venues. That would be fantastic. Because, if he gets runs, India will get a lot of runs as well.”

When asked for his prediction for the series, Hayden said: “Just to sum this up, I’ll paint out what it’s going to look like. Australia is gonna win the first Test in Perth. So, drop-in wicket, but it’s about 12 mm grass that your (Indian) top-order can look forward to; 12mm of very bright green grass. (Josh) Hazlewood, (Pat) Cummins, and (Mitchell) Starc will bother you with pace. And for (Nathan) Lyon, I guess, the ball will really bounce there as well.

“Come across to Adelaide, Kuldeep will turn it. It’s a drop-in wicket as well. It also starts a little grassy, but what tends to happen is it tends to get footmarks and so you’ll win that game.

“And then, you’ll come across to Brisbane and Australia will win that Test match, because it’s just one of those venues which is classically in favour of us.

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“So, now you’ve come to Melbourne, and India comes back hard. You saw the passion and the rivalry at that (2020) Test match. That venue is home to well over 700,000 expats. That’ll be Australia’s away game. It’s the only away game that Australia will actually play.

“So, now you’re 2-all up, then you go to Sydney and that’s when eyeballs start to meet and rivalry starts to happen. Because everyone’s tight. Conditions not being drop-in, they start to then become fierce. Whoever starts that Test match really well, will find it hard to also lose the Test

match because once you get into day three, day four, and in particular day five, it’s a batting graveyard. It becomes really hard to score. Sometimes, it’s tricky in the middle couple of days, but often it’s very hard to score.

“So, I’m going to just leave it 2-all, and I’m going to hedge my bets into that fifth Test match because I can’t wait to see that one. That’s my favourite Test match when India tours Australia because it does turn and the wicket becomes a little tricky to bat on as well.”