The Indian host broadcasters of the upcoming edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia are advertising the series as ‘the toughest rivalry'. Like most things in life, cricket rivalry, among the top of the pops, is also subjective. But this one, especially over the last few editions, has become increasingly spicier.

India and Pakistan don't play bilateral cricket anymore. And let's face it, for a sport whose Test version is played by a total of 12 nations, a clash between the Number 1 (Australia) and Number 2 (India) teams, and that too on mostly fiery Aussie pitches, is a main course to drool over. Add to that the statistical hors d'oeuvres of India having won the last four versions of this rivalry (2016-2023), including back-to-back historic series wins the last two times they toured Kangaroo Land, and you have yourself a meal to die for.

This time, don't be surprised though if the five-match series breaks all viewership records. After all, this enticing meal also has the added spice of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, two batting Titans of the sport, perhaps playing their last series Down Under. But that is not what will make the biggest headlines. Those will undoubtedly be reserved for their performances with the bat. After all, there is very little doubt that the number of runs these two players end up scoring and how big an impact they have on positive results for their team will determine how many miles there are still left in their Test journeys. Needless to say, the upcoming series is an extremely important one – for the team overall and for these two stalwarts of Indian cricket, along with a couple of other ‘super seniors' like R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The entire cricketing fraternity will be watching very, very closely.

And that begs the question—what will happen, realistically, if Virat and Rohit's bats are largely silent in Australia this time, just like they were against Bangladesh and then New Zealand, when India were whitewashed 0-3 at home for the first time in a Test series?

Virat and Rohit, who are synonymous with Indian cricket, have over........

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