After only three days, the India–Australia Tests in Nagpur and Delhi were over.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given India’s Nagpur and Delhi pitches an average rating for the first two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday. A lot of people were concerned about the playing conditions before the mega-series started. Andy Pycroft, the match referee from Zimbabwe, rated the pitch at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur as “average.”
The pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi was also rated as “average” by Pycroft for the second Test, in which Australia battled valiantly for two days before being bowled out for 113 runs on the third. Even if it wasn’t perfect, the surface was considered to be satisfactory.
The Australian team took a keen interest in how the Nagpur pitch would be prepared. David Warner and Steve Smith, two of the team’s best batters, were spotted putting their hands against the pitch and scrutinizing it intently before the game began. Photos of “selective watering,” in which the regions outside the off stump of left-handers were purposefully left dry to aid spinners, also surfaced online.
Warner’s practice habits revealed his concerns about the court’s condition. During the practice session, he batted right-handed, and he thought about switching to that hand for the actual game.
Both matches were completed in three days because of the dominance of Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja against their Australian counterparts.
Even though spin stalwart Nathan Lyon, along with Todd Murphy, Pat Cummins, and Scott Boland, all failed to dismiss Jadeja and Axar Patel for low scores, the duo proved to be a formidable obstacle for the Australian bowling attack.
Together, Jadeja and Patel have scored 254 runs in this series, surpassing the 242 runs recorded by the seven left-handed batters for Australia (Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Warner, Matt Kuhnemann, Matt Renshaw, and Daniel Murphy).
Ben Oliver, Australia’s high-performance manager, defended the team’s rushed preparation for Indian pitches, but Pat Howard, Oliver’s predecessor, noted the importance of taking more time. Australia had a 1-0 series lead during their last visit to India in 2017, but they ended up losing by a score of 2-1.
India’s third Test begins March 1 in Indore, while the series finale begins March 9 in Ahmedabad. The series begins on March 17 in Mumbai with the first One-Day International before moving to Vizag (March 19) and Chennai (March 21). (March 22).
For the third and fourth Tests against Australia, India has named the following players to their Test squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), K. L. Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd.
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Virat Kohli (Vice-captain), Shreyas Iyer (Vice-captain), Suryakumar Yadav (Vice-captain), K L Rahul (Vice-captain), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yu
