Senior players tell youngsters: After an Australia series you go back a better cricketer

Indian cricket team prepares young players for challenging Test series in Australia, aiming to return as better cricketers.

A Test series against Australia is a transformative experience after which an individual "goes back a better cricketer". This is what head coach Gautam Gambhir and some of the star senior players have been trying to instil in the younger members of the team on their first tour 'Down Under'.

It will be a baptism of fire for several young Indian players, with the visitors naming as many as eight squad members who have never played a Test match on Australian soil.

The likes of Yashaswi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Reddy, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, all of them on their maiden tours will have plenty to prove during the marquee series, starting here from November 22.

And who better than the troika of Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, both on their fifth Test tours (2011-12, 14-15, 18-19, 20-21) and Jasprit Bumrah, who is on his third red ball tour (2018-19, 20-21) to share their invaluable learnings from the past series.

"Gauti bhai (Gambhir) had a chat with the boys just before we started, we had some of the senior boys as well," India batting coach Abhishek Nayar said in a video posted by bcci.tv. on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

"Booms (Bumrah), Virat, Ash (Ashwin) having a chat with the guys about how first they came here as youngsters with a lot of seniors around and how they sort of felt that once you finish an Australia series you go back a better cricketer." "I think the young boys are very keen, raring to go and hopefully make a name for themselves by the end of this tour.

"It's one of the toughest challenges for an Indian cricketer coming here and overcoming it," Nayar added.