Australia Tour of India 2023: The men in blue side are current at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata today for the second One-Day International match of the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka.
The third and final match of the ongoing ODI series is on Sunday, 15th January 2023 at Thiruvananthapuram. Then Team India is also scheduled to play the limited overs series against New Zealand.
The Kiwis will travel to India for three-match One-Day International series and they will also play a T20I series.
The first test match against the Australian team will start on 9 February 2023 in Nagpur and the visitors, Australia have named their 18-member squad for this four-Test series.
This will be the first time where Australia will tour India to play four Test matches.
When they toured India the last time in 2017, India won that series despite being 0-1 down. India has won two back-to-back Test series in Australia as well.
In the 18-member squad for the upcoming series against India in the red ball format, The Aussies have named four font-line spin options.
Todd Murphy has been added to the squad for the four-match Test series and Murphy has received his maiden call-up in the traditional format.
Mitchell Starc will miss the first Test match in Nagpur because he is yet to recover from his tendon injury on his index figure. Starc had also missed the 3rd and the final Test at SCG because of that.
Australia had also included fast bowling all-rounder Cameron Green in this four-match Test series. But like Mitchell Starc, Cameron Green is also yet to recover from his broken figure injury.
While Lance Morris, the fast bowler has been named in the squad and Morris can make his Test debut in the 1st Test match in Nagpur if Starc or Green are not fully recovered from their respective injuries.
Australia also has Scott Boland as the backup option for the pace bowling department.
Boland had missed the last Test match at Sydney Cricket Ground against The Proteas, which was drawn because the entire 3rd day was washed out due to the rains.
In the 18-member squad, The Aussies have included six pace bowlers and four spin bowling options. Nathan Lyon is Australia's premiere spinner and he will lead the spin attack against India.
Murphy, Mitchell Swepson and Ashton Agar are the other three spin bowling options for the Aussies on this tour.
Australia recalled their middle order batsman Peter Handscomb in the red ball cricket. He was also part of the 2017 tour to India.
Peter was also named in the third and final Test match against South Africa. Handscomb has earned this call-up after a decent show in the domestic arena.
Marcus Harris hasn't been included in the four-match Test series against India because Handscomb has returned to the red ball side of Australia and the selectors believe that Handscomb has the experience to come good against spin.
Pat Cummins(c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matt Renshaw, Steve Smith(vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
The chairman of selectors of the Australian cricket team, George Bailey, believes that the 18-member squad of the Aussies have covered all the bases for varying conditions in India and he also said the seven days gap between the 3rd and 4th Test match will help them to make necessary adjustments to the squad.
1st Test (9th to 13th February 2023) - Nagpur
2nd Test (17th to 21st February 2023) - Delhi
3rd Test (1st to 5th March 2023) - Dharamshala
4th Test (9th to 13th March 2023) - Ahmedabad
