India and Australia are just a few hours away from the kick-off of one of the biggest sporting rivalries in history. Fans around the globe will also witness the start of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 with a unique milestone unfolding in Perth on Friday.
Pat Cummins is set to lead the strong Australian side who will also enter the series opener as favourites. India will be without their captain Rohit Sharma and are also sweating over the fitness of star batter Shubman Gill ahead of the first Test.
Vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah will step in to don the captain's armband for India at the Optus Stadium. Both Cummins and Bumrah will enter the history books on Friday when the officials begin the kick-off at 07:50 AM (Indian time).
This will be the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy match when two designated fast bowlers will captain their sides. Never before in a tournament's rich history, two fast bowlers have captained a team in a match.
The bilateral Test series between India and Australia was renamed the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 1996 and since then two cricket giants have faced each other in 56 Test matches. In the most recent meeting in March 2023, Steve Smith led Australia in the absence of injured Pat Cummins while Rohit captained the Indian team.
There were very few fast bowlers who had been considered for Test captaincy for both nations. For India, the last designated fast bowler to captain in Test was legendary Kapil Dev (1983-1987).
During the pre-match press conference on Thursday, Cummins called for more fast bowlers to captain the Test teams.
"Great to see, this should happen more," Cummins said. "'The New Zealand series last year was good with Tim Southee as captain as well. I don't think it really changes too much again, but it's one of those rare things. Looking forward to seeing, hopefully from the changeroom, how he goes about his work out there. But as a fan of fast bowling, it's always good to see."
