Former Indian player Sanjay Manjrekar feels the legendary duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma not being in their best form could make it difficult for India to win the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia as well. Both teams will play over five Tests, starting in Perth on November 22 as well.

Speaking on the SportifyWithPRG YouTube channel about the upcoming Australia series, Manjrekar said as quoted by India Today: “It might be a tough one. Virat and Rohit, both are not in their prime, they are not at the peak of their powers to be fair and others like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubhman Gill have to rise to the occasion. Rishabh Pant is the only one that I feel is in his prime and a very important player. As for the Australians, the aura and ability they had in the past, where every game they played, they were like champions, is not there anymore.”

However, Sanjay Manjrekar also feels a highly contested series is going to take place with the deciding factor being the Indian batting.
With players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who helped India win in their last two Australian tours, are out of the team now, India will lean on the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill to carry the batting department as well.

“This series might just be a little more competitive than the last two tours, where Indian cricket reached a new high when they beat Australia. The Indian batting will, I think, decide the fate of the series,” said Sanjay Manjrekar.