Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has predicted a 3-1 win for the World Test Champions in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 against India later this year. Ponting said that Australia will have a point to prove having lost the last two BGT assignments at home in 2018-19 and 2020-21. Australia last won a Test series against India 10 years ago and since then have lost all four BGT series, two at home and as many away.
"It's going to be a competitive series and as I said I think Australia's got a bit of a point to prove against India in Australia on the back of what's happened the last the last two series here," Ponting stated on the ICC Review while being in conversation with Sanjana Ganesan.
India and Australia are set to play a five-match Test series for the first time in more than 32 years with the series set to kick off on November 22 in Perth, followed by a day-night Test in Adelaide. The series then moves to the Gabba in Brisbane from December 14 with MCG and SCG set to host the Boxing Day and New Year's Tests respectively.
"We are back to five Tests as well, which is the other really important thing about this series. It’s only been four Tests the last couple of times. Five tests, I think everyone's really excited by that and I don't know if there'd be too many drawn games," Ponting added.
Former Australia skipper admitted that it will be a highly competitive series but picked his own side ahead of India saying that the hosts are likely to win the series 3-1. "I'm obviously going to tip Australia to win and I'm never going to tip against Australia. There will be a draw somewhere and there will be some bad weather somewhere, so I'm going to say 3-1 to Australia," Ponting added.
The series will be key from the World Test Championship point of view as well given that both India and Australia are at the top of the points table currently and if the results for either team go haywire in the five-match assignment, it could really hurt their chances of qualification for the final.
