India Australia 1st Test: IND AUS Nagpur Test – The last instalment of Border Gavaskar Trophy begins in Nagpur on Thursday. It will be the last time that the four-match Test series will be played. From the next cycle, it will switch to a five-Test format instead. But which could potentially be Rohit Sharma‘s last Test captaincy stint against Australia and Pat Cummins‘ first Test tour to India, a lot is at stake. Even when the two captains posed for the trophy, their thoughts must have been riddled with WTC Final and World No 1 spot. Follow IND vs AUS LIVE Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Rohit Sharma at 35 is at the twilight of his career, at least in Tests. And he won’t want to be the captain to lose a Test series to Australia at home where India haven’t lost in 19 years. For Cummins, 29, he has time on his hand. But he has to take a call on which format to let go of. As things stand, ODI will be the one to go. But Cummins knows that for many of his teammates, India tour will be their last. Hence, he is eying nothing but revenge.
India Australia 1st Test: World No 1 & WTC Final spot at stake, Pat Cummins & Rohit Sharma renew last Border Gavaskar Trophy RIVALRY, Follow IND vs AUS LIVE Updates
But for both sides, the common goal is to confirm the World Test Championship Final spot and seal the World No 1 ranking spot. Australia No 1 may lose their ranking if India win the series. India are eying a grand treble. Already World No 1 in ODI and T20s, they are a series win away from claiming the World No 1 Test ranking.
Nagpur Pitch Report: With Rahul Dravid expressing concerns about the pitch, the pitch curator in Jamtha has done a selective watering to hand India an advantage. To counter the left-hander-heavy Australian batting line-up, the area of outside leg-stump of a left-hander were left dry and only the centre of the wicket was watered.
“Looks little bit dry for left-handers. Potentially fair bit of rough there, but it we have to deal with it and relish the challenge,” Pat Cummins said.
WTC Final Qualification Scenario:
How can India qualify?
- India are in the second spot with 58.93 percentage point.
- Australia are at the top with 75.56 PCT.
- India need to win the series at any cost.
- A draw in the series will be catastrophic for India as SouthAfrica and SriLanka can leapfrog Rohit Sharma & Co.
- Even a 1-0 win over Australia could be enough.
- The scenario is India must win at any cost.
- India can also qualify with a 1-3 loss to Australia if WestIndies beat SouthAfrica and NZ beat SL.
What does Australia need?
- Pat Cummins & Co are in a better place with 75.56 PCT.
- However, their advantage could diminish in challenging Indian conditions.
- Australia must avoid a clean sweep in the 4-match Test series.
- A win in 4 Tests will confirm their spot in the WTC Finals.
- Aussies can still qualify with a 0-4 thrashing if WestIndies beat SouthAfrica 2-0 and NewZealand beat SriLanka 2-0.
What did the captains say?
Rohit Sharma: Very excited to play Australia, especially with 40,000 people coming to watch the match here in Nagpur. We have not spoken too much about WTC. We don’t want to get into the calculations of that. At the moment we want to focus on the game here and see what we can do here and worry about it later.
Pat Cummins: We know it is tough to tour here, but we are excited to come and play here.
One sleep to go.
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— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) February 8, 2023
India vs Australia Head-to-Head:
- Matches: 102
- India Win: 30
- Australia Win: 43
- Draw: 28
- Tied: 1
Probable India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill/Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel/Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Probable Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), 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 (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner
India squad: (for the first two Tests) Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav
India Australia 1st Test: World No 1 & WTC Final spot at stake, Pat Cummins & Rohit Sharma renew last Border Gavaskar Trophy RIVALRY, Follow IND vs AUS LIVE Updates
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