Visitors start without their captain
One of the most anticipated series of the year kicks off as Australia host India in the latest edition of the Border-Gavaskar trophy. The Men in Blue though, start with a bit of a handicap as their captain, Rohit Sharma, and Shubman Gill will be unavailable for the opening Test. It’s a big series for both teams, especially India with regards to the World Test Championship (WTC) as they need a big series win to stay in contention for the WTC 2025 Final.
Ahead of the first Test, here’s our match preview and predictions.
Australia vs India 1st Test | India tour of Australia 2024 | 07:50 IST, November 22
With Rohit Sharma set to miss the first Test due to the birth of his second child, India will be starting on the backfoot without their captain and if things couldn’t get worse, Shubman Gill has also been ruled out of the Perth test due to a fractured thumb. KL Rahul will most definitely walk into the squad, while the talented Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran should be slotting in for Sharma at the top of the order. The remainder of the batting lineup for India isn’t very experienced and there will be a lot of responsibility on KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. Another option for the Men in Blue would be to promote Rahul up the order, to open with Jaiswal. Rahul is no stranger to opening and India can bring in Dhruv Jurel at No. 3 to fill in for the injured Gill.
With Mohammad Shami recently returning from injury, the Bengal pacer has not travelled to Australia, which means the Indian pace lineup is a bit thin on experience as well. Jasprit Bumrah, who will be leading the squad in the first Test, will lead the attack with Mohammad Siraj but barring them, the remainder of the fast bowling line up low on experience and it could come back to bite the Men in Blue. On a fast Perth strip, India are lacking an extra seamer and we might see Nitish Kumar Reddy make his debut as India will need at least four seamers at Perth.
The hosts on the other hand, have a much more experienced batting lineup compared to India but the senior Australian batters haven’t had the best of times during the ongoing WTC 2023-25 cycle. Travis Head, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschange all have struggled to get going. Australia have a problem at the top of the order with an opening slot up for grabs, which Nathan McSweeney most likely will grab. With the ball though, the storied bowling lineup includes Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon with Mitch Marsh, Scott Boland also set to be crucial support acts.
The WACA strip has always been a fast and bouncy strip and expect no different this time with the fast bowlers set to be dominant. The hosts start favourites not only because of their superior pace attack but also given that India are missing some of their main batters in Sharma and Gill.
Fantasy XI: Travis Head, KL Rahul, Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins
Venue: Perth
Winners Prediction: Australia
Leave a Reply