NEW DELHI: With India and Australia set to cross swords in the marquee Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the mind games are truly underway.
With one Aussie great picking Virat Kohli as the 'key player' for India and another Aussie legend asking the hosts to 'go hard' on the 'emotional' former Indian captain, the sledging has already started off the field.
But amidst all these serious 'confrontations', a fun video has emerged which has current Australian players talking about the forthcoming series.
The video has Aussie all-rounder Mitchell Marsh addressing pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, opener Usman Khawaja and spinner Nathan Lyon in an informal meeting.
Looking back at India's last tour of Australia in 2021, Marsh reminds his teammates that India were all out for 36 in the first Test at Adelaide.
Khawaja reminds Hazlewood that the pacer took 5/8 but Lyon interrupts that the Aussies lost the series.
Marsh doesn't let the gloom set in and shows a picture of Rohit Sharma with Lyon and Starc reminds the off-spinner that he has dismissed the Indian captain 8 times in Test matches, at which Lyon corrects him and says, "Actually it's nine, but who's counting?"
At this point, Khawaja picks up a card and says it's written on the card that Australia have lost the last four Border-Gavaskar Trophies.
Marsh responds by saying that he had taken all the bad ones out of the deck and after taking the card from Khawaja, declares, "Meeting's over."
The first Test starts in Perth from November 22 and India need to win 4 Tests in Australia to directly qualify for the World Test Championships final that is scheduled to be held at Lord's in June 2025.
