IND vs AUS Border Gavaskar Trophy: India win toss, opt to bat first in opening Test against Australia

India looks to be in trouble with six wickets down against Australia in the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia here on Friday (November 22, 2024).

Washington Sundar succumbed to Mitchell Marsh leaving India at 73-6. The right-arm pacer also scalped Dhruv Jurel with Australia dominating the first session on Day 1 of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy test match against Australia in Perth.

India captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and elected to bat first.

India capped 21-year-old fast bowler and allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and fast bowler Harshit Rana, 22, for the opening test that is missing skipper Rohit Sharma (paternity leave) and Shubman Gill, who has a broken finger.

K.L. Rahul returns to the side to open with young batting prodigy Yashasvi Jaiswal. The Indian batting lineup is packed with batting allrounders with only Virat Kohli providing experience.

Surprisingly, India picked off-spinner and allrounder Washington Sundar ahead of the experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.

For Australia, opener Nathan McSweeney makes his debut. McSweeney, 25, comes into the side to replace veteran opener David Warner, who has retired from test play.

Left-arm swing bowler Mitchell Starc and seam bowler Josh Hazlewood need just two wickets to become the first Australian new-ball attack to claim 400 wickets together. With skipper Pat Cummins the trio will form the Australian pace attack that will be complemented by veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon.

After experimenting with opening the batting, Steve Smith has dropped down the order to his regular No. 4 with Marnus Labuschagne occupying the pivotal No. 3 position.

Australia and India are one-two in the World Test Championship standings.

The Teams:

India: Jasprit Bumrah (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj.

Australia: Pat Cummins (captain), Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.