This is one of the most anticipated summers of Australian cricket. The Sheffield Shield is well on the way, and the Big Bash will start soon. The national team is in the midst of a gruelling summer as well.

Following a disastrous limited overs series against South Africa, the Indian challenge awaits next. With the World Cup just months away, this tour should set the tone as the teams will look to build for the tournament.

In this article, eight pertinent questions about India’s upcoming tour will be discussed.

1. Will India finally win a Test series in Australia?

2018 has been a peculiar year for the Indian team. An underwhelming Test series loss was followed by a heroic ODI and T20 series win against South Africa.

After that, they won the T20 Nidahas Trophy on the last ball. Then, a routine Test win over debutants Afghanistan happened, followed by a T20 series win against Ireland.

After that was an away tour of gigantic proportions against England. Regarded by many as the top two ODI teams in the world, it was expected to be a rehearsal for next year’s World Cup.

India took the T20 series 2-1 and England won the ODI series by the same margin. While England won the highly anticipated Test series by an anticlimactic 4-1 margin, the matches were closely fought and were nail-biting affairs.

After bulldozing through the Asia Cup, India toiled to an ODI series win against West Indies at home. It was sandwiched between dominant Test and T20 displays against the Caribbeans.

While there have been occasional bumps amid a successful year, the team has now travelled down under.

This team, led by Virat Kohli, has an ominous task of winning a Test series for the first time against the hosts.

Australia won’t be an easy task at home, as highlighted by India coach Ravi Shastri, and are a very altogether different unit when Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon play.

However, with Australian cricket in an apparent freefall, this can be the best chance to create history for the world’s number one ranked Test side.

It should be seen if India can create history or if it is another routine Test series win for the Australians.

2 Will Kohli and Shastri finally win a ‘big’ away series?

As 2018 began, Indian fans were excited as tours of South Africa, England and Australia awaited. There was a belief that India can win a Test series in South Africa for the first time, can beat England after more than 10 years and better the Australians.

While the series were tight, the team turned out too late with the heroics of Wanderers for a 2-1 series loss and lost crucial moments as England ran away with a 4-1 series win.

As the results were scrutinised, questions were raised over Kohli’s captaincy and Shastri’s coaching. While the team is virtually unstoppable at home, the Indian team has not won an away series against South Africa, Australia or England since 2007.

The team is dominant at home and India show how good they are on travels.

Take any legendary Test team; Bradman’s invincibles, Lloyd’s West Indies or the Australian teams under Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting from 1999 to 2007. They won in every conditions against every opposition, home or away. While Australia couldn’t conquer the ‘final frontier’ in 2001, they won in India in 2004.

India have an envious record under Kohli with 24 wins in 42 Tests and just 9 defeats. However, 15 of them have come in India, seven have come in West Indies and Sri Lanka and just one each have come in England and South Africa.

Alongside this, Kohli has captained just twice in Australia, losing one and drawing another.

Sitting comfortably at the top of Test rankings, this team is widely considered as the most dominant Test unit of this decade.

However, if the team wants to justify its tag as one of the greatest of all time, they need to topple Australia in their backyard.

3. Can Australia find the right pieces to defend their ODI crown come July?

Australian cricket has endured mixed fortunes since winning the 2015 World Cup.

They lost the Ashes in England, only to regain it dominantly. They also won ODI series at home against India, Pakistan and New Zealand.

They also notched up famous ODI series wins in England and South Africa. Entwined in this were disastrous 2016 World T20 and 2017 ICC Champions Trophy campaigns.

2018 began on a high note for Australia with a 4-0 home decimation of England which followed a 4-1 humbling at the hands of the visitors.

Australia dominated the Trans-Tasman Tri-Series against England and New Zealand and toured South Africa in high spirits.

The infamous sandpaper scandal happened and since then, Australian cricket has been in doldrums.

To put it in perspective, Australia won just two ODIs in 2018.

They were hammered 5-0 by England just a few months back and South Africa defeated them 2-1 at home earlier this month. The only shining light was a finals appearance in the T20 tri-series against Pakistan and Zimbabwe.

With the 2019 World Cup on the horizon, this has been a forgetful year for the defending world champions. Steve Smith and David Warner have been missed, others barring Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch have failed to rise to the occasion and the absences of Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood haven’t helped.

While Warner and Smith are expected play the World Cup, the team has looked out of depth in every department.

It is said, ‘The good thing of being at the nadir it that is there is only one way somebody can go’.

With their backs firmly against the walls and situation looking bleak, there can be only one way for Australia to travel; upwards.

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These 10 matches against India won’t be easy; but if Australia play to their potential and have results their way, this tour can produce new heroes of Australian cricket as they look to build a competent squad to successfully defend the World Cup.

4. Can Australia’s middle order finally fire?

After the bans of Smith and Warner, the Australian batting order has looked worryingly brittle across the formats.

In ODIs, Warner’s absence at the top was always going to bother. However, it’s Smith’s middle order anchoring that Australians have missed more.

Since the Newlands-gate; Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim Paine, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar, Aaron Finch, Alex Carey, D’Arcy Short, Chris Lynn and Travis Head have batted between spots 3-7.

In eight matches, there have been just two 50s (one each by Maxwell and Stoinis) and three 100s (all by Shaun Marsh) from Australia’s middle order.

In Tests; Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Tim Paine, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne occupied spots 3-7 since Smith and Warner’s ban. In six Test innings since Cape Town, there have been just four 50s from Australia’s middle order (one each by Khawaja and Head and two by Paine).

If Australia have to beat India in the Test and ODI series, their middle order must fare better. It has been a constant sight of their middle order floundering after good starts by openers in both the formats.

There is an immediate urgency to find solutions in their 50-over squad as within months, Australians start their defence of the World Cup.

If the middle order continues to struggle, Australia may find themselves out of depth even with the brilliance of returning Warner and Smith.

5. Can Aaron Finch consolidate his position as the captain of Australian ODI team leading to the World Cup?

Alan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

Beside being few of cricket’s legends, they have captained Australia to World Cup triumphs.

These four would have been fondly remembered without the trophy as well, however World Cup triumph increased their legacy.

The 2019 Cricket World Cup is a few months away. With a near certainty that Smith or Warner won’t ever become national team’s captain again, Aaron Finch looks set to lead Australia in England.

Immediately after sacking of Warner and Smith, Tim Paine was appointed as the ODI and Test captain while Finch took over as the T20 captain. While Paine did a commendable job, Finch was promoted as Australia’s captain across the limited-overs formats last month.

Being one of the brighter lights of Australia’s batting since the South Africa tour, 2018 was Finch’s best year in terms of ODI performances.

Australia has found itself out of sorts in every format of the game in recent months. Even with the return of their pace trio, hardly anybody is giving them a chance to even reach the last four in England.

Every World Cup-winning Australian team had a captain leading from the front. As they look to build a squad to reclaim the crown, what better way to cement your position as the captain than leading from the front and triumph against a world-class side like India?

6. Will India’s ODI top 3 continue their domination?

It can’t be debated that India’s current top three is the best top three in ODIs.

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli have defied odds, dominating every thing in their sight over last few years.

Since July 2013, Kohli has scored 5725 runs at over 70 with 23 centuries, Dhawan has scored 4235 runs with 13 centuries and Rohit scored 4974 runs at over 63 with 19 centuries, thre of which were double hundreds.

Additionally, in this period of under five and a half years (since July 2013), Rohit and Dhawan have been the highest scoring openers in ODI cricket.

This calender year, Dhawan has scored 897 runs in ODIs in 19 matches at just under 50, Rohit has scored 1030 runs in 19 innings at just under 75 and Kohli has scored 1202 in just 14 innings at an average of over 133!

Alongside this, Rohit’s unbeaten 111 against West Indies made him the first batsman to score four T20I 100s. New Zealander Colin Munro is second with three.

With World Cup around the corner, this can be one of the most imporant tours for Indians. Not only is this the best chance for India to win a bilateral series against Australia, it can increase Dhawan, Rohit and Kohli’s confidence to keep on performing in overseas conditions.

Finally, maximum chunk of India’s innings is often played by the top three.

With their domination, a question or few about India’s middle order have been raised. This leads us to the next point.

7. Will India’s relatively inexperienced middle order be an Achilles heel against Australia’s experienced bowling attack?

Ranked first in Tests and second in both ODIs and T20s, it’s safe to say yjr Indian team has been the most consistent team across all formats of the game.

However, an analysis of India’s rise to the top raises questions such as; how will India perform if their fancied top three start to fail? Or, who fits in the Test fold better, Ravindra Jadeja or Ravichandran Ashwin?

However, if there is one question India should find a solution for it must be ‘who plays in the middle order?’, both in Tests and ODIs.

While the side is pondering to find a solution to fix these problems, there is an urgency to sort the best ODI playing eleven out as the World Cup is on the horizon.

India’s ODI team oozes class. Having arguably the best top three in cricket, they have an attacking, wicket-taking spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.

Alongside them, Jasprit Bumrah and two among Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Khaleel Ahmed form a strong bowling unit. However, the lower and lower middle order has been a matter of concern in recent times.

With a fixed top three and four specialist bowlers, four spots appear to be up for grabs leading up to the World Cup.

Ambati Rayudu is expected to take the number four spot at least against Australia.

A strong series down under should confirm his spot in India’s playing XI at the World Cup. Otherwise, he faces competition from Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul or Manish Pandey at number four.

MS Dhoni’s omission from the T20 squad against Australia raised eyebrows. Expected to return for the ODI series, he should take number five. Hence, any two among Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik should occupy six and seven.

What may be a happy headache or a disadvantage, anybody from after Kohli may need to play the role of finisher.

With a dominant top three that plays around 25-35 overs every match, batsmen after Rohit, Dhawan and Kohli usually have around 15-20 overs to score as many runs as they can. Sometimes, this requires India’s batting order to change based on the situation of the game.

With a still uncertain playing eleven, India want to use this tour to build up a team for next year’s World Cup.

The situation is not much different in Tests.

Rahul should keep his spot at the top and youngster Prithvi Shaw should join him in Adelaide.

Cheteshwar Pujara has looked a shadow of himself in recent years and Ajinkya Rahane has failed to find consistency with the bat.

Rishabh Pant is inexperienced and Hanuma Vihari, if he plays, is too green.

One between Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin is expected to play followed by three pacers.

India may even play both Jadeja and Ashwin and three pacers instead of Hanuma Vihari.

As was seen in England, captain Kohli often was the sole warrior with the bat for the Indian team.

With the likelihood of a scathing bowling attack of Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins and Lyon in Tests and Starc, Hazlewood, Cummins, and Nathan Coulter-Nile in ODIs, India’s uncertain ODI middle order and inexperienced Test middle order can be decisive in which way the tour goes.

If it holds good, the visitors may create history – but if Australia dominate India’s middle order, the hosts will come out on top.

8. Can Krunal Pandya step up to the plate?

Deubting against West Indies dominantly, the older Pandya has his task cut out.

In what may be a concern, he is the only recognised all-rounder in India’s T20 squad.

His name won’t be new for IPL fans around the world. Scoring at over 150 and bowling at just over seven in 39 T20 matches, Krunal has been one of the best performers for the IPL giants Mumbai Indians.

However, international cricket is an altogether different ballgame. He impressed on his debut against West Indies, finishing off a tricky chase in style in the first T20.

All together in three matches, his 12 overs yielded just 78 runs at at an economy rate of 6.5. He has been more than a capable part of every team he has played for so far.

As good as he has been, his real Test will be against Australia. Being the only specialist all rounder in India’s T20 squad, he can either be instrumental to help India win the T20 series or be one of main culprits if Australia triumph.

This early in his international career, Krunal has an excellent oppertunity to be recognised as much more than Hardik Pandya’s elder brother.