Indians love beating Australia in any form of cricket: Usman Khawaja

New Delhi, Sep 09: As the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) draws near, veteran left-handed opener Usman Khawaja has acknowledged the fact that the Indian team takes great joy in defeating Australia in cricket, regardless of the format, while reflecting on historic rivalry that has only intensified over recent years.

India has won 2-1 in the last two Border-Gavaskar Trophy series happening in 2018/19 and 2020/21 in Australia.

The visitors’ will be aiming to make it a hat-trick of series wins in Australia when the five-match Test tour starts on November 22 in Perth, followed by games in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

"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 it 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.

I think, yeah, 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,” said Khawaja to Star Sports.

Fast-bowler Josh Hazlewood, who was a part of Australia beating India 2-0 in the 2014/15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series at home, said he is keen to get the trophy back for the hosts’.