As the highly anticipated 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy gets closer, here's Wisden's predicted XI for India for the first Test against Australia at Perth.
India's squad for the five-match Test series in Australia was announced during the course of the second India-New Zealand Test in Pune, which the hosts lost, succumbing to their first home Test series defeat in 12 years. With just one more Test in the ongoing series to go, the focus has well and truly started to shift to India's next assignment in the longest format, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The first of the five Test matches will be played at the Optus Stadium in Perth, starting on November 22. Four Test matches have been played at the venue so far, with Australia winning all four of them. Pace has dominated spin by a fair margin in those four games, with seamers bowling 72 per cent of all balls bowled so far. The quicks have naturally also taken more wickets, 102 as compared to the spinners' 37, but their bowling averages don't differ by a lot, with fast bowlers averaging 29.71 runs per wicket and spinners averaging 33.18. Keeping the conditions in mind, here is how India might line up for the first Test.
India's squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy: 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, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Top order
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal are certainties at the top. However, there are some question marks over Rohit's availability for one or two Tests in the series, although it's not clear which Tests he might miss. India have picked the in-form but uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran in the squad as the reserve opener. While there might be temptations to move KL Rahul, who has successfully opened in Test matches outside Asia in the past, up the order in case Rohit misses the series-opener, the Indian management has clarified that they view Rahul as a middle order batter, which should pave the way for Easwaran's long-awaited Test debut. Shubman Gill, meanwhile, should hold on to his No.3 spot.
Rohit Sharma/Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill
