Australia vs India Preview: Team News & Prediction | 1st Test
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Optus Stadium is the setting for the first Test of this five-match series between Australia and India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Date/Time: Thursday November 21st 2024: US PST – 7:20pm / US EST – 10:20pm / Friday November 22nd 2024: UK – 2:20am
Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth, Australia
Weather: Dry across all five days with a little cloud cover in periods of day one, but bright sunshine throughout the remaining four days as temperatures reach highs of 31c.
How To Watch On TV: UK – TNT Sports / US – Willow TV
How To Watch Online: UK – discovery+ / US – Willow TV
Australia Team News
The hosts named a 13-man squad for this opening Test with Scott Boland and Josh Inglis expected to be the two players who miss out. The big news is the inclusion and expected Test debut of Nathan McSweeney, who was called up ahead of Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft.
McSweeney will open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja, whilst all-rounder Mitchell Marsh keeps the side well-balanced with Cameron Green out through injury. As usual, the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins will be complemented by spin-bowler Nathan Lyon.
Predicted line-up: Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Casey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
India Team News
India are without a number of players in Perth, not least captain Rohit Sharma, who has just welcomed the birth of his second child. With Shubman Gill also absent after fracturing his thumb in training, the tourists are without two of their regular top three. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will step up to lead the side in Rohit’s absence, whilst KL Rahul is expected to open with Yashasvi Jaiswal with Devdutt Padikkal at three.
Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel are battling it out for the number six spot, but there may be no place for Ravindra Jadeja should India opt to play just one frontline spin-bowler due to Ravichandran Ashwin’s career-long success against left-handed batters.
Predicted line-up: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah (c)
Australia Betting Analysis
When taking into account the absentees within the Indian top order, the Australia quicks will be excited at the prospect of bowling at them with a shiny new ball. Not least Mitchell Starc, whose left arm rockets so often bring success on the fast, bouncy pitches that we usually associate with Test cricket in Australia. With that in mind, a shrewd move would be to back Starc ending this match with over 4.5 match wickets.
India Betting Analysis
With a weakened top three, the pressure is high on Virat Kohli who has been suffering through a bad patch of form. However, Kohli is notoriously strong in Australia and already boasts a previous Test score of 123 at Optus Stadium. The former captain is still the only batter to have scored a century on this ground for India in red ball cricket and backing Kohli via the ‘Batter Milestones’ market to accumulate 70+ runs over the course of this first Test is well worth moving on from a betting perspective.
Australia vs India Expert Prediction
Coming off the back of that historic home series defeat at the hands of New Zealand, India are not in the best of shape right now, which has only been exacerbated further leading into this Test by the loss of two key batters in Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. The former in particular is a huge miss, not least due to his leadership skills.
Australia will no doubt be smelling blood and the opportunity to take an early lead in the battle for the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Taking 20 wickets shouldn’t be a problem with such a strong bowling attack and provided the batters can hold up their end of the bargain, Australia should get off to a winning start.
Australia vs India Tip: Australia to win
