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Match – India Vs Australia 1st Test Match
Date – Thursday, 9th February 2023 to Monday, 13th February 2023
Venue – Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur
Toss Time – 9 PM IST and Local, 4 AM GMT
Match Time – 9.30 PM IST and Local, 4.30 AM GMT
TV Channels – Star Sports India Network
Live Streaming – Disney+ Hotstar
Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj.
India is the favourite in the four-match Test series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, which starts in two days.
The team will miss Rishabh Pant and Jasprit Bumrah in the first Test match and the whole red ball series.
But still, the playing XI of the home side looks solid on paper and they have been unbeatable at home since long years.
India should go with the opening combination of skipper Rohit and the Prince, Shubman Gill. KL Rahul is more experienced than Gill. But the form of KL Rahul hasn’t been up to the mark.
Gill has been in tremendous form across the formats. He has slammed a double ton in the fifty-overs contest and a century in the T20I match. Both the games were played against New Zealand recently.
Gill even has the experience of playing against the Aussie fast bowlers and he did well when India toured Australia and won the Test series for the second back-to-back time.
This would be a good physiological advantage for Gill and India too needs in-form players against a brilliant Australian side.
In the absence of Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan is the most likely to get his maiden Test cap in Nagpur. Kishan has been good in the limited overs format, especially in the ODIs at the opening position.
He also slammed a double ton against Bangladesh in the fifty-overs series. But against New Zealand, he failed to put on a show and so now he needs to be mentally prepared to face the Aussies as a middle-order batter.
India has also named KS Bharat for this red ball series. KS too has been good in the domestic circuit and he has done well in the IPL.
Bharat’s keeping skills are also great and it would be interesting to see how Kishan manages to keep up with the turning and the spinning deliveries because the Indian bowlers will surely extract more turn and bounce than the Australian bowlers.
Pujara and Kohli, the pillars of India’s Test match cricket will be the players to watch out for. Pujara had a good series against Bangladesh and he ended that series by scoring a fantastic century.
But Virat Kohli’s form hasn’t been great in the red ball format. India will want The King to get out of the slump from this series.
Virat has scored a T20I century and he has been excellent in the fifty-overs format. But in Test matches, the King hasn’t scored a century since 2019.
Now it is the time for him to come out of that poor run just like he did in the limited-overs format.
King Kohli loves playing against the Aussies and so, Virat Vs Cummins will be a fascinating battle in this Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Shami and Siraj hold the key for the men in the blue side. Siraj has been in terrific form and now he is the number-one bowler in the fifty-overs format.
India will want him to continue that form with the red ball also. The home side should include Axar Patel instead of any other batter in the middle-order position.
Axar Patel has been good in Test matches as well. Patel can also lengthen the batting order and also provide an extra option of spin.
Team India can go with the combination of three spin bowlers and three pacers for the first two Test matches.
David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey(wk), Cameron Green, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins(c), Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon.
The Aussies are placed as the number one team ranked in the current ICC Rankings and they also have the number one batter and number one bowler on their side.
Skipper Pat Cummins is the number one Test bowler while Marnus Labuschagne is the number one batter. Australia also tops WTC rankings and they have qualified for the WTC Finals in 2023.
The batters of Australia have some experience of playing in Indian conditions. David Warner and Steve Smith have played in India before and they are also an integral part of the IPL.
Warner needs to step up as this would be his last India tour and Smith, the vice-captain of the Australian Test side also needs to bail the team out.
Smith has the experience of playing the spin well while the other Aussie batters don’t have much clue about it.
The batting will revolve around Steve Smith because he is the batter who will take the team forward in this Test series.
Australia has lost two back-to-back series at home against India. So this would be a great challenge for them to take the trophy home.
Josh Hazlewood is out of the first Test match and Australia is uncertain about Mitchell Starc as well. So the onus will be on the skipper Pat Cummins and Cameron Green to do the bulk of the bowling.
Nathan Lyon will be the lead spinner for the visitors and they have included Ashton Agar as the second spin bowler, who can also lengthen the batting for Australia.
The pitch in Nagpur will be beneficial for the spin bowlers and it would help the batters as well.
The weather forecast is good for the first Test match.
Batters – Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and David Warner
Bowlers – Pat Cummins, Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel
All-rounders – Ravindra Jadeja and Cameron Green
Wicket-keeper – Alex Carey
Vice-captain – Ravichandran Ashwin
Captain – Marnus Labuchagne