One of the more anticipated Test series of the winter months gets underway on Friday morning when arguably the two best sides in the world right now meet when Australia take on India in the first of five matches, with Perth being the opening venue.
This is sure to be a keenly fought series which is going to occupy the next couple of months and both teams will head to Perth with one thing in mind and that is to draw first blood and get the opposition under immediate pressure.
Australia
This series will end a very large diet of white ball cricket for Australia but you only have to look at the quality of the squads that they have used in the most recent white ball outings to know that their full attention is on this series. They are one of the nations who still value Test cricket as the ultimate in the game and as such they will be keen to show their credentials here, not least because India have served it up to them in recent times.
Australia have failed to win any of their last four series against India so if they wanted any extra motivation for this one then that would serve as it. The Aussies did get the better of India in the latest World Test Championship final though and if they are to win this series then their batters will need to deal with the Indian bowling a lot better than they have done in recent series. In a keenly fought series, Australia need to be on it with the ball at all times too.
India
It will be interesting to see how India go in this first Test match. They have been playing Test cricket recently but a series loss at home to New Zealand wasn’t the preparation they were looking for heading into this one. They haven’t had a warm up match ahead of the series either, although to be fair they have been in Australia for long enough to acclimatise to conditions, albeit practice is never the same as being out in the middle and competing, so there is a strong chance that India build their way into the series.
India are without their captain for this opening match so that is an issue they will have to deal with and they have some players in their side who are touring Australia for the first time so that is something else to come to terms with. In addition to all that, they face a side who are unbeaten on this ground in this format of the game so there is every reason to think India might have to wait for success in the series. Were that not to be the case then their bowlers will need to keep them in the game.
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Team News
Australia are beginning a new era in this match with David Warner now a thing of the past. Nathan McSweeney has been selected to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the innings with Steve Smith back in the middle order. Mitchell Marsh is fit.
There will be no Rohit Sharma for India in this opening match which means that Jasprit Bumrah will skipper his country. There is talk that Devdutt Padikkal will fill the hole left by the thumb injury for Shubman Gill while Nitish Kumar Reddy could make his debut.
Betting
There has been unseasonal amounts of rain around in Perth in the lead up to this match which is muddying what were already murky waters in terms of trying to predict what might happen in this opening game. The beauty about this series is that with there being five matches we don’t need to steam into the first match so I’m going to take a largely watching brief and potentially play this one in play, however there is one bet which stands out initially.
That is for Rishabh Pant to be the leading India batter in their first innings. There is a real lack of experience in the top three for India in this match, both in this format of the game but especially in Australia, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if India were two down early, especially if they are put into bat on a pitch with a bit of moisture in it. There is so much pressure on Virat Kohli in this match that I can’t take him so it might be that the aggressive, take the attack to the bowlers, approach of Pant is the one which goes well. In the five matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand recently, Pant made scores of 109, 99, 60 and 64 so he’s in good touch and he averages 62.40 against Australia having made his highest score of 159* against them. He also has scores of 97 and 89* against them and those have all been in Australia. The 5/1 on him to top score looks big.
Tips
Back R.Pant Top India 1st Innings Batter for a 2/10 stake at 6.00 with Sky Bet
