India have won the toss and decided to bat first at the Optus Stadium in Perth in the first Test of the 2024/25 edition of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
After a long build-up that no one could have enough of, we are finally here right before the first ball of the BGT down under, and India have gone with a surprising call of picking Washington Sundar as the lone spinner over the experienced duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
India seems to have gone with horses for courses for this game, having handed debuts to Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana—two players who don’t even have much first-class cricket experience behind them.
While Reddy is here to play that Shardul Thakur role, Rana’s selection comes after him proving himself as India’s go to bouncer specialist in the simulations. Apart from that, selecting Washington Sundar over Ashwin and Jadeja seems to be an inspired selection considering the bounce at offer on the Optus Stadium surface, and his recent form back home in India.
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Going into this Test, the clarity in the playing XI of both sides couldn’t have been more contrasting – Australia had already put a stamp on their XI by filling the vacant opener spot with the 25-year-old Nathan McSweeney.
India, meanwhile, had already lost Shubman Gill to the infamous WACA nets, and injury to Mohammad Shami and absence of Rohit Sharma had further ensured a lot of instability in the playing XI for the visitors.
As expected, the conditions are quite clear at the moment in Perth with a lot of sunshine. Going by convention, the teams have selected to bat first at the Optus Stadium Perth in all the four previous Tests played here. In fact, they have also gone on to win all these Test matches.
Playing XIs
India: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
Skippers Speak
Pat Cummins: We were 50-50, either way we are pretty happy. Feel well placed, pretty fresh. Any format we (India-Australia) play seems fiercely fought. Nathan McSweeney makes our debut at the top of the order.
Jasprit Bumrah: We are going to bat first, looks like a good wicket. Very confident with our preparation. We played a Test match here in 2018 so we know what to expect. The wicket gets quicker. Nitish makes his debut. We have 4 quicks and Washi is the lone spinner.
Pitch Report
While the Perth curator had been on record saying that the pitch will be your typical fast WACA kind of a track, the conditions looks really good for batting on Day 1 with the sun out. The team batting first should also benefit from the fact that persistent sunlight and heat might allow the pitch to crack, making batting in the fourth innings a really treacherous sport. Although the eight milimeters of grass on the surface will certainly allow the new Kookaburra to bite.
