In an era of dominance, one lone blemish stands in the way of Pat Cummins and his teammates from placing themselves amongst the highest echelon of Australian sporting teams.

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Since taking over the captaincy in 2021, Cummins has led Australia to World Cup glory and a maiden World Test Championship title, also securing Test series triumphs in Pakistan and New Zealand. Australia is currently No. 1 on the ICC Test rankings, only tasting defeat once in their 15 most recent Tests on home soil.

Despite boasting an assortment of modern greats, including Cummins and batting maestro Steve Smith, fans stop short of comparing the current Australian team to past generations, such as Bradman’s Invincibles and Waugh’s golden boys, teams that bullied the opposition and were untouchable in home conditions.

That’s why the next seven weeks will be career-defining for several of Australia’s ageing cricketers, some of which may not get another opportunity to enact revenge on the Indians, who have won four consecutive Border-Gavaskar Trophy series since 2017.

Smith’s 35, Usman Khawaja turns 38 in December, Starc celebrates his 35th birthday this summer, Lyon’s 36, while Hazlewood turns 34 in January.

“It’s the only trophy I haven’t won before,” Cummins told Fox Cricket.

“Particularly the two home series here that we played (against India), it’s the one blight, so we’ll hopefully make amends for that.

“This is the one trophy our group haven’t ticked off.

“We’ve achieved some amazing things over the last few years as a Test group. You kind of back yourself to win every series at home. I think you need to to try and be up there in the upper echelon of teams.

“That’s what lies ahead of us this summer.”

Entering the twilight of their Test careers, Australia’s experienced stars will be desperate to finish with a flourish. These next two home summers, which includes five Tests against India and England, could shape the legacy of this powerhouse team and cement a legendary status within the sport.

“This definitely feels like one of the strongest teams we’ve had for a while,” opener Khawaja told Fox Cricket.

“We’ve been playing some really good cricket, but India’s team is very good too, which is why everyone’s so excited to watch the No. 1 and No. 2 teams going at it.

“This Australian team is very settled. It’s been strong for a while.

“There’s no excuses, whoever wins is most likely the best team in the world.

“I think we’re in the best position we’ve been in a while to take India on.”

Highest win/loss percentage among Australian Test captains

4.555 – Steve Waugh

3.000 – Richie Benaud

3.000 – Ian Chappell

3.000 – Ricky Ponting

2.833 – Pat Cummins

* Minimum 25 Tests

For Cummins and co, India’s stranglehold of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy over the past decade has stood in their way of being remembered as a great Australian cricket team.

However, despite possessing the coveted trophy for nearly a decade, India’s triumphs over Australia have been anything but dominant; each of their four previous encounters, oddly enough, ended as a 2-1 series win to India. The cricket has been competitive but rarely one-sided — the obvious exceptions being Cheteshwar Pujara’s stubbornness in 2018/19 and last year’s Delhi collapse.

“We’ve been outplayed the last couple of times they’ve come out to Australia,” Smith told Fox Cricket.

“We’re a really good side at the moment, we’ve kind of got all bases covered. We’ve been playing really good cricket the last few years. Hopefully we’re well equipped.

“It’s going to be a great series. They’re a very good side.

“Hopefully we can get one up on them this year.”

Lyon is adamant the national team is still building towards greatness, indicating he wants to continue playing until the 2027 Ashes. He’s yet to feature in a winning Test tour of India or England after seven attempts, a trend he’ll be desperate to overturn in three years’ time.

“I feel like we’re on the journey to becoming a great team,” Lyon told Fox Cricket.

“We’re not there yet, there’s a bit of work to do, but we have the opportunity to do something pretty special this summer.”

And as for India, Lyon couldn’t resist pointing out who emerged victorious when the two nations previously butted heads in the Test arena.

Despite failing to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, Australia bounced back a couple of months later with a 209-run victory in London to lift the World Test Championship mace

“India’s got the wood over us in the past few series, but if you’re looking at the World Test Championship (final) in England, we were able to beat them there, and I know that should give us a bit of confidence heading into (this summer),” Lyon continued.

“We understand that we’re coming up against a world-class side, but we can take a lot of confidence out of where we are at as an Australian cricket team.”

Australia’s current top order is packed with talent, but future generations probably won’t reminisce as fondly as current fans do for the era of Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn and Waugh.

Between them, Cummins, Hazlewood, Starc and Lyon have taken 1430 Test wickets at 27.15, winning major ICC events across all three formats.

In the 30 matches they’ve played together, they’ve collected 500 wickets — an all-time Test record.

“They have pretty much won everything but the Davis Cup, haven’t they?” Australian champion Brett Lee laughed.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan took on Waugh’s team at its peak, headlined by the likes of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

Nonetheless, the Yorkshireman believes Australia’s current bowling attack is superior.

“I think this quartet is Australia’s best,” Vaughan said.

“Warne, McGrath, Lee and Gillespie were incredible, but I just think this four, they’re so consistent. They’re just a pack of four who are so relentless to play against.”

Despite all their accolades and achievements, India’s triumphs in 2018/19 and 2020/21 remains a blemish in the bowling quartet’s sparkling reputations, a glaring red asterisk on their resumes.

Starc and Lyon endured a torrid time against India toured four years ago, collecting taking 20 wickets at 47.20 across four Tests.

This summer is their chance for redemption — a shot to finally shake the Test ghosts that still linger.

“This was something that would be haunting those four players, that they haven’t knocked off India for the last couple of times,” Lee continued.

“They’ll be wanting to put that to bed now and want to make sure they can tick that box.

“It’s going to take a long, long time to go past four bowlers who have dominated like the three Australian quicks plus Nathan Lyon. I mean, they are the superstars of Australian cricket.”

The first Test between Australia and India gets underway at Perth Stadium on Friday at 1.20pm AEDT.

Additional reporting from Courtney Walsh