Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat in the Pink Ball Test against Australia in Adelaide, with the hosts handing a debut to Cameron Green.
Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat against Australia in the Pink Ball Test. After winning the toss, Kohli said that putting runs on the board was crucial in setting the momentum. "Going to have a bat. Looks a nice wicket, nice and hard. Runs on the board is priceless, more so away from home. Hope we can put pressure on them. We've prepared really well. Couple of tour games as well. We had everything clear on our end, that's why we announced our team yesterday." Cameron Green, who was hit on the head when a Jasprit Bumrah straight drive burst through his fingers, is making his Australia debut and he got his cap from Pat Cummins before the toss. The Indian cricket team already announced their playing 11 one day before the match and there were some surprises. KL Rahul was left out of the team while Prithvi Shaw was brought in to open with Mayank Agarwal. Wriddhiman Saha was included in place of Rishabh Pant as the keeper and that raised some eyebrows as Rishabh Pant had a superb time in 2018/19 against Australia.
Australia have never lost a Pink Ball Test having won all seven matches previously while India will be playing their first-ever overseas Day/Night Test. India won their inaugural Pink Ball Test against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens. However, the conditions were different, with the SG ball being used in India while in Australia, the Kookaburra was used. This is the fifth Pink Ball Test in Adelaide after the first one was played in 2015 against New Zealand.
This series is very important from the perspective of the ICC World Test Championship final in 2021. Australia are currently first in the points table with 82.2 percentage points while India are second with 75. A series win for either team will seal their spot in the final which will be played in Lord’s in June 2021.
Playing 11s of both teams
India: Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia: Joe Burns, Matthew Wade, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c and wk), Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood
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