Having got off to a remarkable start to the new year with ODI and T20I series victories against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, team India will now gear-up for the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy, featuring four Test matches against the mighty Australians. The first match of the series will take place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur from February 9 onwards.
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Having earned the bragging rights after winning the previous three editions of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, (including back-to-back series wins in Australia itself) team India will yet again continue to keep the streak going, with eyes also on booking their second-consecutive berth in the World Test Championship (WTC) grand finale.
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The Rohit Sharma-led side however, will be without two of their stars in Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant throughout the series, but would also welcome allrounder Ravindra Jadeja with open arms as he makes his way back post an injury.
Australia, on the other hand, look to be in all readiness especially to negate the threat likely to come their way via the Indian spinners. But, they have already been handed a massive dent with experienced pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood being ruled out from at least the first Test.
Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium Nagpur pitch report
The Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur is set to host its first Test match after more than a five-year gap, with the previous one taking place between India and Sri Lanka in November 2017.
The fresh wicket will bring the pacers into play, especially with the hard new ball. But, spinners are likely to dominate the proceedings right away, more so from ‘Day 3’ onwards, when the pitch will begin to deteriorate.
As for the batters, they are likely to enjoy themselves in the first innings itself, and will look to pile on as much runs as possible while the wicket does stay true to its bounce. Only thrice have teams managed to score above 500 runs across 20 Test innings here.
The captain winning the Toss is likely to bat first at this surface, although teams batting first and second have won equal number of matches across the six previous Tests at this venue.
