First Test match between Australia and India: Australia chose two off-spinners, including Todd Murphy, who will partner experienced spinner, Nathan Lyon. On Day 1 in Nagpur, Australia chose to bat after Pat Cummins won the toss.
Todd Murphy made his debut for Australia in the first of the four-test series against India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Pat Cummins, the captain of Australia, won the toss and decided to bat first on Thursday, February 9 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on a surface that was predicted to be spin-friendly.
For the eagerly anticipated Test series, Australia had selected as many as four spinners. The 2-man spin attack will be led by Nathan Lyon, and Murphy, a fellow off-spinner, has been chosen. For the first Test, the visitors did not include Mitchell Swepson, a leg spinner, or Ashton Agar, a left-arm spinner.
Day 1 updates for India vs. Australia’s first test
Peter Handscomb, who had excelled on Australia’s 2017 trip to India, was chosen instead of the in-form Travis Head. Hands comb’s most recent Test appearance for India was in a domestic Border-Gavaskar Trophy match in 2019.
The decision to omit Head by Australia may have been made to reduce the number of left-handers in their batting lineup, which already includes wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, and Matt Renshaw.
The Indian batting order will bat last on the Nagpur pitch, and it has to be seen how successful two off-spinners will be in opposing them given the attention-grabbing news surrounding the series opener. India will bat last.
Pat Cummins praised their preparation for the Nagpur Test and stated that the team is feeling confident. Notably, before arriving in Bengaluru for a 4-day training camp where they imitated spin-friendly circumstances, Australia held a 2-day spin camp in Sydney.
Indian versus. Australian starting XI for the Nagpur Test
Australia: Todd Murphy, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), and Peter Handscomb.
India: Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj, as well as Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Srikar Bharat (w).
