Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first against India in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday.
India's Border-Gavaskar Trophy title defence begins with first Test at Nagpur today. For India, star batter Suryakumar Yadav will be making his Test debut while wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat will be making his international debut. Spinner Todd Murphy will be making his international cricket debut for Australia.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins said at the toss, "We are going to bat. Looks like a pretty even wicket toward the middle. 2017 was a big series. Cannot wait to get this started. We have had good preparation. We feel we are really well placed. Two changes Todd Murphy in. Handscomb in for Travis Head."
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said at the toss, "We would have batted too. Looks pretty dry. There will be help for spinners. We got to wait and see how much it does. Yesterday when we started training we did see some seam movement for the pacers up front. We have had good preparation for the last 5-6 days. We trained on the aspects in store. This is a big one. We know the importance of the series but we also understand it is about winning one session at a time. It is a long series. Three spinners, two seamers, Bharat and Suryakumar Yadav are debuting."
Earlier, former team India coach Ravi Shastri had boldly claimed that the men in blue should be looking to win the crucial series 4-0, taking advantage of home conditions.
Australia Playing XI: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
(With inputs from ANI)
