'For Indians, it's always been the case to beat Australia': Usman Khawaja depicts India-Australia rivalry ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Add as a preferred source on Google

Australian opener Usman Khawaja has acknowledged the rivalry between India and Australia over the last few years.

India are set to take on Australia in a five-match Test series in November. Rohit Sharma and his team will be aiming to maintain their summit spot in the WTC table as they are up against the Aussies in a tough encounter down under.

As the two giants of world cricket lock horns together, Usman Khawaja believes the rivalry between the two nations have grown over time and the domination of both nations in cricket has taken the sport to a different level.

"We're world number one, world number two teams really over the last two years. We were there at the last World Test Championship together. The rivalry has always been huge. I take it as a sign of respect and I know that Indians love beating Australia in any sort of form of cricket. And the tradition that Australia has had over so many years as being one of the dominating teams in world cricket has staked that reputation," Khawaja said to Star Sports.

Along with that, the Australian thinks they will have extra motivation to topple India this time, especially with the current record of the Indian team in Australia.

"For Indians, it's always been the case to beat Australia. And more recently, you know, since the rise of India and IPL and everything else that happened, it's the same way with Australia against India. And particularly since India's beaten Australia in Australia the last two times they've come out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. It just means a little bit more," the Australian added.

India have had a magnificent record in Australia in recent times. The Indian team have won the last two Test encounters down under and will be aiming to continue their dominance in the upcoming series as well.