Since the start of the decade Australia and India have been the two best teams in men's cricket and although India have dominated in bilateral series, Australia have consistently come out on top at ICC Tournaments.
Having won trophies in all formats including the 2021 T20 World Cup, 2023 World Test Championship and 2023 ODI World Cup, the current Australian outfit are no strangers to the big stage or the taste of silverware.
However, after winning the World Test Championship in 2023 and following the gradual retirement of superstar opener David Warner, Pat Cummins was tasked with dragging an ageing core to one last final.
With cracks and weaknesses beginning to appear in what was once a commanding side, Australia's road to the 2025 WTC Final is one defined by flashes of brilliance and critical thinking that gave Cummins and his team the edge in so many crucial moments over the past 18 months.
Kicking it off, there was no easing into the new cycle for Australia as their first assignment was to tame England and the Bazball machine.
England - Away - Draw - 2/2
1st Test - Edgbaston - Won by 2 Wickets
After Zak Crawley smacked the first ball of the series from Cummins for four and having been 'Bazballed' into conceding 393 runs on day one, a bold Ben Stokes declaration gave the Aussies some respite before a mammoth hundred from Usman Khawaja put Australia back on level terms.
Set a daunting chase of 281 on the final day, Australia found themselves 227 for 8 before Nathan Lyon and Captain Cummins put on an unbeaten 55 runs for the 9th wicket partnership to give the Aussies a lead in the series.
2nd Test - Lord's - Won by 43 Runs
A 1st innings hundred from Steve Smith gave Australia a 91 run lead before both teams famously turned to bowling endless bouncers in the next two innings as England were left to chase a record breaking target of 371.
It was at this point that Australia's entire series flipped on its head when Lyon's calf injury ruled him out of the tour and hours later the Alex Carey run out of Johnny Bairstow turned the entire country against the Aussies.
Despite Stokes making 155 in the 4th innings and nearly reigniting the miracle of Headingley 2019, Australia closed out the win but would not taste success for the rest of the tour.
3rd Test - Headingley - Lost by 3 Wickets
The return of Mark Wood and Chris Woakes further helped England's comeback as the duo combined to take 13 wickets in the game tearing through the Aussies with extreme pace at one end and high skill at the other.
Then to cap it all off both players were present at the end of the 4th innings to make an unbeaten 24 for the 8th wicket and reignite England's series.
4th Test - Old Trafford - Draw
Crawley's belligerent 189 led England to 592 comfortably wiping out Australia's 1st innings score of 317 as the English were now in pole position to chase the victory and level the series.
However, the Manchester rain and a fighting hundred from Marnus Labuschagne helped Australia hold out for the draw and retain the Ashes on an anti-climatic rainy morning in Lancashire.
5th Test - Oval - Lost by 49 Runs
With much still to play for Australia were set a 384 run target just as Stuart Broad announced his retirement mid-test before taking the final two Aussie wickets on the last day to draw the Ashes for England.
Next for the Aussies was a three match home series against a struggling Pakistan team who hadn't won a Test in Australia for almost 20 years.
Pakistan - Home - Won - 3/0
1st Test - Perth - Won by 360 Runs
It started exactly as expected with Pakistan struggling to cope with the pace and bounce of the Australian pace attack as they were thumped by the Aussies including Warner who started his final series by hitting 164 in the first innings to put the visitors firmly on the backfoot.
2nd Test - Melbourne - Won by 79 Runs
The Boxing Day Test was a much closer affair as Pakistan stayed within touching distance of Australia throughout the game but 5-fers in both innings from Cummins guided the Aussies home in a narrow win.
3rd Test - Sydney - Won by 8 Wickets
Warner's last test at his home ground was another comfortable win for the Aussies as despite Aamer Jamal's heroics with both bat and ball Australia and Warner chased a simple 130 in the 4th innings to seal a clean sweep.
Despite waltzing past Pakistan it was set to get easier for Australia who welcomed the bottom ranked team West Indies to their shores.
West Indies - Home - Draw - 1/1
1st Test - Adelaide - Won by 10 Wickets
A predictable start to the series ensued as Travis Head smashed a hundred on home turf to guide Australia to a comfortable win as Josh Hazelwood ripped through a poor West Indies batting line up with a match 9-fer.
There were some good signs for the visitors, though, as debutant Shamar Joseph took a maiden 5-fer, including the wicket of Smith, who had stepped up to open and fill the gap left behind by the departing Warner.
2nd Test - Brisbane - Lost by 8 Runs
Arguably one of the games of the year started with West Indies posting 311 in the first innings off the back of some fighting lower order runs before Cummins ironically declared the innings whilst still trailing by 22 runs.
This led to Australia being set a seemingly comfortable 211 for victory, but for an injured Shamar Joseph to steam-roller through the Aussies with a 12 over spell of 7 for 68 clinching a thrilling win by cleaning up Hazelwood before sprinting to all corners of the Gabba.
Having dropped a test to the West Indies, Australia's next assignment was a tricky visit to New Zealand, a team who are often very dominant at home.
New Zealand - Away - Won - 2/0
1st Test - Wellington - Won by 172 Runs
With the second high score being extras with 41, Cameron Green justified his move up to number four by single-handedly making almost half the team score with a massive 174 not out.
New Zealand then crumbled at the fingers of a Lyon 10-fer thus giving them a heavy defeat for a game where they were at one point in pole position.
2nd Test - Christchurch - Won by 3 Wickets
The second test was a much closer affair where the Kiwis had let slip of a dominant position when a Matt Henry 7-fer set Australia 279 to win and the visitors further slipping to 80 for 5.
Then an unbeaten 98 from Carey and 32 not out from Cummins once again guided Australia over the line in a tight situation.
Having navigated a home summer relatively unscathed, Australia had time to put their feet up until the following season where they would lock horns with India for a bumper 5 match series set to decide the course of the WTC.
India - Home - Won - 3/1
1st Test - Perth - Lost by 295 Runs
India entered the series without their captain Rohit Sharma for the first game and off the back of losing 3-0 at home to New Zealand whilst Australia were once again in the middle of another opening batter fiasco.
So after falling for 150 in the 1st innings it looked all gloom for the visitors but for stand in skipper Jasprit Bumrah to shred the Aussies for just 104 before Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli piled on the runs as Australia got no where near in a chase of 534.
2nd Test - Adelaide - Won by 10 Wickets
In need of a comeback, Australia delivered with Mitchell Starc and Cummins taking 6-fer and 5-fer in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively whilst Head smashed 140 to put the Aussies level in the series.
3rd Test - Brisbane - Draw
Now firmly in the ascendancy, Smith and Head put up first innings hundreds for Australia as rain eventually forced the Aussies into setting India a Day 5 chase of 275 that never really commenced due to inclement weather.
4th Test - Melbourne - Won by 184 Runs
Having given up on their Nathan McSweeny opener experiment after only three games, Australia brought in young gun Sam Konstas who lit up the MCG by taking down India's spearhead Bumrah in outrageous fashion.
A Smith and Nitish Kumar Reddy century later, India were set 340 to win on the final day and at 112 for 3 during tea, it looked like the draw was all but a formality until Scott Boland and Lyon snatched the victory for the Aussies with 7 wickets in the final session.
5th Test - Sydney - Win by 6 Wickets
The final game of the series with the trophy on the line came down to a battle between both side's premier seamers in Boland and Bumrah; so as the former collected a 10-fer the latter was forced off injured in the 2nd innings thus giving Australia a relatively comfortable 4th innings chase of 162.
Beau Webster then rounded off an excellent debut by smacking Washington Sundar over his head for four to seal the series for Australia and land them a ticket to Lord's for the WTC Final in June.
Following an inconsequential trip to Sri Lanka, and with the entire team aside from Kostas being in excess of 30 years-old, there is every chance that this could be a Last Dance for quite a number of the senior players who have defined the past 5 years of Aussie dominance in Test Cricket.
