Former Australia captain Tim Paine has jumped on the bandwagon, in terms of giving his prediction for the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India and Australia, who have formed quite a rivalry off late, which go head-to-head in the five-match Test series, beginning November 22 in Perth, and it is fair to say that the upcoming contest holds the key for both the teams in terms of qualification for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, set to be played at the Lord's Cricket Ground in June 2025.

Both India and Australia are looking to seal their qualification for the final. Rohit Sharma and co's chances took a big hit after India lost its first home Test series in 12 years after stumbling to an embarrassing loss against New Zealand in the Pune Test.

Tim Paine, under whom Australia lost two series against India (2018-19 and 2020-21), believes that Australia start as the clear favourites for the upcoming series against India. He also thinks that Mohammed Shami will be a big miss for the visitors, and Jasprit Bumrah has a lot on his plate.

"Australia are going to start pretty strong favourites. I think India have not been playing pretty well, their batting looks a little brittle. So, Australia's batting does not look amazing in terms of output, but we know they have got the quality," Tim Paine said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.

"Shami is going to be a huge difference, Bumrah, there is so much on his shoulders. If he gets hurt, then it's curtains for me," he added.

India made too many mistakes!

The 39-year-old Tim Paine also had a joke or two about New Zealand beating India in the ongoing three-match Test series. The former Australia captain said that Rohit Sharma and co made too many mistakes, and hence New Zealand caught on.

"No. They (New Zealand) are not very good. Is that harsh? Unbelievable performance, no doubt about that. But that makes me worry a little about India, totally honest. Coming to Australia, without Mohammed Shami as well, but New Zealand have always been an amazing team at scrapping and getting the best out of themselves if you make a mistake," said Tim Paine.

"And I think, India made far too many mistakes in the series. New Zealand's catching was unbelievable, hats off to them but if they were to play Australia in Australia right now, is it going to go well for them? No," he added.

Tim Paine also said that there is still scope for batters to grind it out in testing phases during a Test match. He cited the example of Cheteshwar Pujara, saying it was the right-handed batter who won India the series against Australia during the 2020-21 tour.

"What I do remember, a lot of people talk about Rishabh Pant in the last series in Australia, but the guy who won them the series was Pujara. He wore us down, he wore our fast bowlers down. He kept getting hit on the body, but he kept getting up. There is still place for that in Test cricket," said Tim Paine.

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