Australia great reveals key factor in battle for Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Australia great Matthew Hayden expects runs to be a premium when his former side clashes with fellow powerhouse India in the five-Test battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the end of the year.

It will be the first time in more than 30 years that the two teams will feature across five matches and the series follows an unusual path of commencing in the traditional seamer-friendly conditions in Perth, before moving to Adelaide for the crucial pink-ball Test under lights and finishing in more familiar surroundings of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

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With Australia's seam attack featuring skipper Pat Cummins and regulars Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, Hayden thinks runs will be difficult to come by for both teams Down Under during the crucial ICC World Test Championship series.

"You look at the line-ups, and it's hard to really tell who's got the edge," Hayden told reporters at the CEAT Cricket Rating Awards.

"I sense that it's going to be runs that are going to be the point of difference. So the best need to stand up in this series; runs are going to be at a premium. And I also feel like the structure of the tournament being from the west to the east is a bit of the unique way that the Australian landscape of cricket is going to be played out. It's usually the other way around. It's going to be a great summer."

Australia legend Ricky Ponting recently predicted his former side to win the series 3-1 when speaking on The ICC Review and India great Ravi Shastri unsurprisingly went the other way when asked for his thoughts on how the eagerly-awaited series would transpire.

Hayden believes the fact that the Aussies haven't defeated India in a Test series on home soil in almost 10 years would be playing heavily on the thoughts of the Australian side.

“Look, I was seeing a reel from Ravi Shastri today on Instagram, and he was saying the Aussies hadn’t had the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in their hands for almost a decade. Well, that’s a fighting word straight away," Hayden noted.

“We haven’t had it in our hands for two series in Australia, which is kind of the coveted grounds, not dissimilar to the (former skipper) Steve Waugh era here in 2001, where this was the hallowed turf, this was the place where Australia really wanted to come and win, and his great era didn’t do it.

“So there’s always, and this is why I think it’s such a special series, there’s always this fantastic opportunity for the No.1 and No.2 side on the World Test Championship table to go head-to-head, especially abroad, in each other’s camps, and see who really has those kind of final rights to claim not only the possibility of playing the Test Championship, but also who’s the very best of the best, which you judge on how you tour, not so much how you play at home."

And Hayden issued a word of warning for youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is expected to line-up for India in his first tour of Australia after making a scintillating start to his international Test career.

Jaiswal has three centuries from nine Test matches and is averaging 68.53 following a flying start to five-day cricket, but Hayden thinks the left-hander will not find things so simple against Australia away from home.

"I think he's a package," Hayden said of Jaiswal.

"Yes, his stroke-play is superb. His ability, in particular, to hit on the up through the covers is phenomenal. [But] that'll also have its vulnerabilities. I'm looking forward to seeing how he adjusts on bouncy tracks. We did notice a few times in the IPL that he's a very hard hitter of the ball - [with the] pull shots in particular.

"But that'll be challenged by three world-class speedsters, assuming they're all fit, and on much bigger grounds as well - grounds where it has to almost be the perfect contact for that ball to sail over for six. You can get caught easily, three-quarters of the way in the fence. So they have little adjustments that world-class players like Jaiswal will make for sure."