After a telling conclusion to the ODI and T20, what looms ahead and is the most special part of the tour is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a test series featuring four tests between two of the best test teams of the world, a rivalry they dotingly label as India vs Australia.
Australia had the first laugh as they humbled India in the ODI series, clinching the first two games in the sequence. India did manage to come back in the final ODI and the momentum that they had managed to garner from the last game went along with them that saw them squashing the hosts in the two opening T20’s, thereby leveling the numbers in the squad. Australia managed to avert the blushes of a whitewash in the T20 series, thanks to some resolute bowling from Mitchell Swepson.
The forthcoming Test series will not be a child’s play as the upshot of the excruciating format of the sport cannot be settled by whims of the nature or moments of individual brilliance that turn the tables upside down in the shorter format of the game. You will need a lot more than one session of magnificence, an enduring physique and a shorter strategy to disrupt the fluidity of the innings.
Fortunes are made, stories are penned, heroes fall and kings rise in this most enduring format of the game. We will sneak a peek in the date, time, venue, pitch report, and the live streaming of the first battle, eventually which will constitute the war.
Date:
17th December, 2020
Time:
9:30 AM IST
Venue:
Adelaide Oval, Adelaide
Squad:
India cricket team Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj.
Australia cricket team Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
Pitch report:
Adelaide is a batsman’s paradise in the initial three days of a Test match. Despite the surface being bouncy, it hardly has any movement and the ball tends to swing very rarely. However, as the surface starts wearing out, the chasms on the track accentuate making life a living nightmare for the batters. The bounce tends to get extremely uneven and the ball rages both ways more than a sandstorm on Mars. The team batting first will savour an added advantage, however, India had previously proven otherwise with a knock of inhuman resilience from their wall, Rahul Dravid.
Live Streaming:
All the games of the series will be live-streamed on Sony Liv. You will also be able to watch the games on Sony Pictures Sports Network – Sony SIX, Sony Ten 1, and Sony Ten 3.
