India’s hopes of making their third straight appearance in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final comes down to the highly-anticipated five-match Test series against Australia. The much-awaited series is set to kick start from November 22 with the first Test scheduled to be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
While the hype around the BGT 2024-25 already touching the roof with Virat Kohli making to the front page of the Australian newspapers, the Rohit Sharma-led Team India will be up for a massive challenge when they face off Australia at the Perth Stadium. Ahead of the opening Test, Western Australia Cricket head curator, Issac McDonald dropped a big statement on the pitch.
Live grass on the pitch in Perth: Issac McDonald
Speaking ahead of the first Test in Perth, Issac McDonald stated, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo, “This is Australia, this is Perth. I’m setting ourselves up for really good pace, really good bounce and really good carry.” The Perth pitch curator also opened up on the what the track has on offer, hinting of the tricky conditions.
He added, “It’s (10mm) a good starting point. Ten millimetres was pretty comfortable with the conditions that we had (last year) and that held the conditions together nicely for the first few days. Live grass on the pitch is speed. Both bowling units (Australia and Pakistan) were pretty rapid last year and hoping for much the same this year (for India match).”
Seeing pace to be a crucial factor on the Perth pitches, while Australia has included the likes of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Mitchell Starc in their ranks, India too has some good pace attack, including Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and others.
BGT 2024-25: Squads for first Test between Australia and India
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc