Key posts
Poll: Who wins the first Test?
Toss: India bat first and leave out 855 Test wickets
India have won the toss and chosen to bat in Perth. The big news in their line-up, no Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja – with 536 and 319 Test wickets respectively.
Jasprit Bumrah acknowledges a bit of moisture in the deck but likes the firmness in the pitch. India has named two fast bowling debutants in place of their champion spinners on this pitch, Washington Sundar is the visitors sole spinner.
Washington Sundar is India’s sole spinner in Perth.Credit: Getty Images
Sundar, you’ll remember his heroics with the bat at the Gabba in 2021, is a man very much in form – he took 11 wickets against New Zealand during the recent Pune Test.
Virat Kohli made the cap presentation to bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy earlier and it was Ashwin who handed a cap to Harshit Rana. We saw a bit of Kumar during the India A games and he did have some hustle with the ball. Rana is 22 and comes in for just his 11th first class outing…
Big, possibly series-defining, call from the visitors already.
Indian XI: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishbabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Hashit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj.
Australian XI: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Head, Pat Cummins (c), Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
Stats: One of the oldest Australian squads in history
Age shall not weary them… hopefully. This Australian XI – so excluding Scott Boland’s 35 years and Josh Inglis’s 29 – is one of the oldest in Australian Test history.
Few sides shade it for length in the tooth, last year’s XI including Dave Warner and the 2006 Ashes vintage feat. the likes of Warne, McGrath, Langer and co are among them.
Usman Khawaja, 37 years young.Credit: Getty Images
Change is coming of course for the Aussies, Nathan McSweeney’s nod as a 25-year-old opener is only the start. But this Border-Gavaskar series looms as the final frontier for a few.
Gavaskar: The Indian pest you can’t take your eyes off
By Sunil Gavaskar
Just before one lands in Australia there’s a video played on the flight informing the incoming passengers of what they can and cannot bring into Australia.
This is to prevent pests and diseases, as the video informs us.
Rishabh Pant is always cheeky and takes it up to his opponents. He has been a thorn in Australia’s side before.Credit: Getty Images
How then did Rishabh Pant get through immigration and customs? If there’s a pest for Australia, it is this intrepid keeper-batter, who has turned games on their heads with his irreverent, audacious batting.
He is a lovable pest too, especially behind the stumps where his constant words of encouragement to the bowlers and fielders is couched in sly digs at the batter.
This is a huge source of entertainment to the viewers since there’s no malice nor foul words, but just non-stop banter.
Read Sunil Gavaskar’s exclusive column previewing the first Test here.
Lehmann presents McSweeney with his baggy green
Stats: Do you bowl first today?
Poll: Who wins the first Test?
The weather: Day for it
Welcome sports fans
Morning one, morning all,
Marvellous to have you with us for the official start of summer – day one of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy from Perth, the most eagerly anticipated Teat series in years (let’s not pretend that ODI and T20 guff counted as true summer fare).
Australia. India. Smudge. Virat. Bumrah. Cummins. Ravi Shastri being Ravi Shastri in commentary. The visitors coming off their most humbling defeat this century, a 3-0 whitewash at home by the Kiwis, while the home side bids for a trophy they haven’t held for a decade. If you’re not excited by now, I just can’t help you.
Let the games begin.Credit: Getty Images
We’ve got Dan Brettig and Tom Decent on the ground at Optus Stadium. We’ve got Greg Baum on the lounge down south. And we’ll have the toss and final confirmed teams in roughly 30 minutes. What more could you want?
