New Delhi, Aug 29 : Former Australia men's head coach John Buchanan believes the Pat Cummins-led side is the initial favourite for him to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, citing the current lack of preparation time for visiting teams ahead of a tour.

India and Australia will be squaring off in the all-important five-match series at Perth, Adelaide (pink-ball game), Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from November 22 to January 7, 2025. Australia have not won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy since 2014/15, as India prevailed over them in the 2018/19 and 2020/21 series respectively.

'I never give predictions, but I will say Australia is favourite at the start of the series. When you look around world cricket these days, it's very difficult to tour other countries. One of the reasons for that is that travelling teams no longer have that preparation of playing two-three games before the first Test to get used to conditions,' said Buchanan, who was in Mumbai to launch the multi-sports foundation program 'Ready Steady Go Kids' with CP Goenka International School in partnership with Sports Gurukul.

For this year, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been expanded to five Test matches for the first time since the 1991/92 series. The build-up to the all-important series will see India play five Tests at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand.

The India 'A' team is also slated to play two four-day matches in Mackay and Brisbane before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins. Australia, on the other hand, will see its players prioritising playing first-class matches via the Sheffield Shield.

Buchanan, the two-time men's ODI World Cup winning coach, thinks Australia have a slight edge over India due to its batting line-up. 'It's going to be a classic series. Five Tests, which is one more Test than what we had previously. It does make a difference as by the time the teams reach Sydney, they would have played presumably four hard Test matches prior to that in a short period of time.'

'It's going to test their resolve physically and mentally. The teams are pretty evenly matches with strong bowling line-ups. Personally, I still favour the Australian batting lineup a little bit at this point,' he concluded.

/IANS