I know Indians love beating Australia in any form of cricket, I take it as sign of respect: Usman Khawaja

As the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) draws near, anticipation is building for what many consider cricket’s most intense rivalry—India versus Australia. With both teams dominating the world stage as the top two in Test cricket, the upcoming series, starting on November 22 promises to be a thrilling contest.

Speaking exclusively to Star Sports, Australian cricket stars Usman Khawaja, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Marsh shared their insights and excitement ahead of the series. They reflected on the fierce competition, mutual respect, and the significance of this historic rivalry that has only intensified over recent years. 

Australia cricketer Usman Khawaja spoke on the significance of the India versus Australia rivalry as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy approaches. He said, “We're world number one, world number two teams really over the last two years. We were there at the last World Test Championship together. The rivalry has always been huge. I take it as a sign of respect and I know that Indians love beating Australia in any sort of form of cricket. And the tradition that Australia has had over so many years as being one of the dominating teams in world cricket has staked that reputation. I think, yeah, for Indians, it's always been the case to beat Australia. And more recently, you know, since the rise of India and IPL and everything else that happened, it's the same way with Australia against India. And particularly since India's beaten Australia in Australia the last two times they've come out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It just means a little bit more.”

Josh Hazelwood spoke on his excitement of looking forward to the BGT series. He said “Yeah Probably sums it up there, toughest rivalry. It’s always a great challenge playing against India, and they are so used to the conditions out here, that they love it. You know in Australia the challenge is huge. They’re batting their top order, no matter who’s playing, is unbelievable, their top six or seven. I played them in my debut series, obviously, and we got the win, that might have been the last time. A lot of the same players are still playing, I think I got Virat in that game. So a lot of our players, I guess, haven’t beaten India in a test series. The guys were playing, such as Travis Head, Cameron Green, guys like that. So, yeah, huge summer for us coming up and hopefully get that trophy back.”

Marsh opened up on the significance of BGT, adding how the intense rivalry has been built up between the two countries owing to the brand of cricket played by India and Australia. Marsh said the rivalry between the two cricketing giants has come up due to a few results going in their favour while few in India's favour in the recent past.

Mitchell Marsh spoke on the rivalry between India and Australia ahead of the BGT Series He said “I think it’s just the cricket that’s been played between the two teams. If you look at the history, the recent history, we’ve won stuff, they’ve won stuff. And I think that when it’s back and forth like that, it builds that rivalry within yourselves. You know there are great friendships in the Indian team with our team, so there’s no hatred. But it’s a great on-field rivalry, both teams want to win. And Australia versus India, it’s another opportunity to grow the game of cricket. Not that cricket needs to grow in India, but worldwide. People tune into these big series.”