It’s the battle of the Titans as Border-Gavaskar trophy kicks off in Nagpur

It is a battle of two gladiators at Nagpur as India and Australia prepare to take the yard in what is going to be the curtain-raiser for a mouth-watering series. Both the teams are currently occupying the top two spots on the WTC table and will be hoping to bring out their very best in order to decide the fate of the final slated to be played at the Oval, later in the year.

India will be coming into this fixture on the back of a triumphant conquest of their neighbours, thanks to a 2-0 victory, the first of which was easy sailing, the second being a tough outing with a late twist in the tale. 

Australia, on the contrary, will be venturing into India on the back of a series win against South Africa even though there were brief moments of fear seeping into the hosts when the Proteas managed to put up a staunch showdown.

India will be banking on spin with the turning department led by an experienced Ravichandran Ashwin who will most likely be joined by Ravindra Jadeja and a pick between Kuldeep and Axar. Australia will definitely be pinning their hopes on Nathan Lyon to lead the charge who in all possibilities will be aided by the likes of Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson.

India will be without their primary fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah wherein Australia is already depleted of two of their main bowlers in the fast-bowling department with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood being ruled out with injuries. Cameron Green may be deployed for his batting and razor-sharp fielding but he will also not be able to roll his arm due to a finger injury.

The two sides will be heavily relying on their batting unit to deliver the payload considering the presence of two of the world’s fab four in their ranks, namely Virat Kohli and Steven Smith. India will be desperate to plug the gap left behind by Rishabh Pant with KS Bharat but only time shall reveal how India goes around in this department.

Venue Watch:

This is a fairly new ground and as far as the antiquity of VCA Stadium goes, it has so far hosted 6 Test matches, 3 of which have been won batting first while 2 of the remainder have been won batting second. The average first innings score is 323 while the average second innings score is 361. The numbers keep on plummeting sharply in the 3rd and the 4th innings with the scoreboard reading an average of 246 and 197 respectively in the last 2 innings.

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 102

India: 30

Australia: 43

Match Details:

India vs Australia

VCA Stadium, Nagpur

 9th February 2023

9:30 AM IST

Squads:

India:

Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav

Australia:

Pat Cummins (captain), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner