Five-match Test series vs Australia won\'t be possible this year: Ganguly

Five-match Test series vs Australia won't be possible this year: Ganguly

India cricket team led by Virat Kohli is scheduled to play four Tests Down Under in the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting November

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India vs Australia | India cricket team | Australia cricket team

BS Web Team & agencies  |  New Delhi 

Virat Kohli looks to the umpire after he and opposing captain, Australia's Tim Paine came face to face after Kohli moved into Paine's path during play in the second cricket test between Australia and India in Perth | Photo: AP/PTI
Virat Kohli looks to the umpire after he and opposing captain, Australia's Tim Paine came face to face after Kohli moved into Paine's path during play in the second cricket test between Australia and India in Perth. There will be limited-overs games

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly has said that five-match Test series in Down Under will not be feasible later this year. Earlier, Cricket Australia has proposed a five-match Test series over the traditional four match rubber.
 
India cricket team led by Virat Kohli is scheduled to play four Tests Down Under in the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting November.
 

What is Border-Gavaskar Trophy
 
The Border–Gavaskar Trophy is a Test cricket series played between India and Australia. It is currently played via the International Cricket Council's future tours program, with varying lengths of time between matches. If the series is drawn, then the country holding the trophy previously retains it.
 
The series is named after Australia's Allan Border and India's Sunil Gavaskar, the first 2 test cricketers to have scored over 10,000 Test runs each, former captains of their respective teams, and were both world record holders for the most career runs scored in Test match cricket.
 
India currently holds the trophy after regaining the trophy from Australia in the 2017 series which they won 2–1, then retaining it in the 2018–19 series which they won by the same margin. The first edition was played in 1996.
 

"I don't think it will be possible for India to participate in five Tests. There will be limited-overs games and plus we have to consider the 14-day quarantine guidelines. All this will extend the tour," newspaper Mid-day quoted Ganguly.
 
Terming their relationship with the BCCI as 'strong', Roberts had said a five-Test series is a possibility but not a certainty.

 
"There's no certainty about that [five-Test series] for the coming season, but what I can say is that the relationship between the BCCI and Cricket Australia is really strong," Roberts told reporters on a video call last month.
 
"We've discussed a shared desire to evolve to five-Test series between Australia and India in the future. It's something we've both committed to in principle in the future, the big question is whether or not we can bring that in before the next future tours cycle in 2023.
 
"We don't know what prospect there is of that next season, but certainly with a changing landscape...we won't rule out a possibility of that until we get closer to the time," he added.
 
 
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First Published: Fri, May 15 2020. 14:42 IST