Border Gavaskar Trophy: The Indian team will play the first match of the five-match Test series against Australia from Friday in the absence of regular captain Rohit Sharma. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will lead the Indian team in this match to be held in Perth. Rohit will be out of this match due to the birth of his second child. Finding the right combination in this match will be the biggest challenge for India.
India defeated Australia on the 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours, but the way New Zealand recently defeated India 3-0 in the Test series on its soil, it must have definitely lowered the morale of the Indian team. It is important for India to forget the old bitter memories and take inspiration from the performance done in the past against Australia. India had to face a crushing defeat in the opening match of the 2020-21 tour and the team was all out for just 36 runs in the second innings of that match played in Adelaide. The Indian team had recovered from a bad phase and was successful in winning the series by winning the next two matches in Melbourne and Brisbane.
In Rohit's absence, KL Rahul can open the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal. Rahul recently opened in the unofficial Test against Australia A. Rahul could not perform impressively for India A as well and scored four runs in the first innings and 10 runs in the second innings. However, Rahul has been going through poor form for some time, due to which he was kept out of the last two Test matches against New Zealand. Rahul's record as an opener in Australia is not good. He has scored 183 runs in seven innings of four matches at an average of 26.14 and a strike rate of 45.29, which includes a century. Rahul, however, was seen sweating it out during the practice session before the start of the series.
21-year-old all-rounder Nitish Reddy may get a chance to be included in the playing-11 for the first Test match against Australia. Morkel had hinted at Nitish getting an opportunity. If Nitish is successful in making it to the playing-11, he will make his debut in the red ball format from this match. Nitish started making an impact from the IPL 2024 season, due to which he got a chance to make his T20 International debut. Nitish has played only 23 first-class matches, but his ability to bowl at medium pace and score important runs in the lower order can prove to be important for India in overseas conditions.
Captain Rohit was already not available for this match, but after this Shubman Gill also got injured, which increased India's concern. Gill was injured during the intra-squad match a few days ago and it is almost certain that he will not play in this match. However, bowling coach Morne Morkel had said on Wednesday that any decision regarding Gill would be taken before the start of the match on Friday morning. Gill comes out to bat at number three, so it will be interesting to see which player the Indian team management will take in his absence. It is believed that Devdutt Padikkal can come out to bat at number three in place of Gill.
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Considering the moisture and bounce in the pitch for the first Test, India can replace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja with better off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. With Nitish's inclusion, the team management can rest Jadeja as Nitish can play the role of fourth fast bowler along with batting in the lower order. Of India's top six batsmen in batting, three have never played in Australia and two have only four Test matches experience. But Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel have confidence. There will be a lot of expectations from Rishabh Pant, India's best batsman in the last five years, and star batsman Virat Kohli.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaspreet Bumrah (captain), Mohammad Siraj, Akash Deep.
Australia: Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
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