Steve Smith is talking about where he wants to bat. Nathan Lyon is singling out players in the Indian team that he wants to target, led by young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. He's also talking about "10 years of unfinished business" with regards to not having won a Test series against India. Josh Hazlewood is echoing his teammate's sentiments referring to that fact as, "astounding".
It will be 10 summers when the five-match contest does kick off after all since Smith, Lyon and Hazlewood have achieved that, having seen India win here on two straight occasions in that period. Pat Cummins is yet to experience a Test series win against India, even if he has led his team to a World Test Championship (WTC) final win against them.
There have been other comments too doing the rounds about the high-profile summer with Cummins even hinting at taking the next two months off to recuperate after a hectic run on the road since last year to prepare for it. Based purely on the volume of content being generated currently in the lead-up to what lies ahead, you'd have thought we are only weeks away from the most talked-about Test series in modern-day cricket.
Not in mid-August, where it's very much still footy season. It's very much still officially winter in Australia. And that the talk around most parts of the country is about who'll finish in the top 8 of this current AFL season, and if the Sydney Swans will truly be able to hold on to their season-long momentum and go all the way. A period of the cricket off-season where generally you'd barely even hear about a bat or ball, forget seeing big-name cricketers hogging headlines and the main sports pages in Australia.
But it's perhaps a window into just how significant a summer Australian cricket is about to embark upon during what has otherwise been a largely quiet year. Especially when you consider the glut of cricket during the winter months in 2023. The Test series against Rohit Sharma's team who'll be looking for a three-peat is only the main course, even if it is a very sumptuous one.
While all attention will turn to see how Cummins leads his team into finally stopping the Indian juggernaut on home soil come November 22, what plays out right after will be equally important. The Big Bash League (BBL) is about to enter a crucial edition too in January as it continues to try its best to keep up with the ever-rising competition from the other leagues sprouting up all the time.
The focus will also be on the BBL which will enter a crucial edition in January ©Getty
The news around David Warner, who's currently plying his trade in a T10 tournament in the Cayman Islands, being available for an entire season for Sydney Thunder is a great fillip for a league that in recent years has struggled to showcase much high-profile Australian talent. There was even bigger news when Smith, considering he's still a contemporary international cricketer unlike Warner, signing a three-year deal with Sydney Sixers, who he's led to BBL glory in the past. Even the fact that Smith will be available for only four matches this time around is a monumental enough boost for the BBL.
Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey too have meanwhile committed themselves to multi-year deals with their respective franchises. After having won over its detractors with a truncated and more exciting season last year, the BBL is in line to build on that with a bigger presence of its international cohort, despite the loss of Afghanistan ace Rashid Khan for a second straight year.
Though most of the east and central coasts are still going through their wet seasons, there's already cricket underway on the mainland. The multi-format Australia A v India A women's series has thrown up some fabulous performances and is entering its final chapter in the northern part of the country.
The men's team, meanwhile, have already had a mini-camp in Brisbane and the squad members for the white-ball tour of the UK will depart on Monday (August 26), which is also when the squad for the Women's T20 World Cup, now scheduled to be held in the UAE, will be announced. To put the changing landscape of bilateral cricket further into context, the T20I and ODI tour of Scotland and England has surprisingly only received passing mentions in most cases, especially since a number of senior players will be taking a break.
The likes of Alyssa Healy will return from the World Cup and go straight into the WBBL before hosting the Indians for a three-match ODI series, which will be played in the gap between the 1st and 2nd men's Tests.
The summer itself will culminate with the first women's Test at the MCG since 1948, where the Ashes will be decided under lights with a pink ball.
There've been plenty of announcements already from Cricket Australia as they look to tap into the South Asian diaspora in what will be a summer highlighted by subcontinental visitors with the Pakistanis kicking off the men's season with a bunch of T20Is and ODIs. There will be dedicated seating areas for Indian and Pakistani fans alike at all international games involving their teams, which will only enhance what will anyway be a challenge for the home fans to match the noise and energy that those supporting the visiting teams will bring to stadiums around the country.
This comes in the wake of long-term commitments being announced for Australia's iconic Test venues with special emphasis on the following three summers, after two home seasons which despite some high-quality cricket didn't quite create the kind of buzz expected from what lies ahead. There'll be a lot more promotional initiatives coming to the fore as Australia bids adieu to a fascinating AFL season and welcomes spring with the buzz expected to reach fever-pitch as the Indian men's team land in Perth around mid-November, after having completed two full Test series at home. Also expect a lot more chatter from an Indian perspective as we get there. As it turns out, Australia aren't going to wait that long. For, from Smith to Cummins, they're already talking about it.
