The first of four test matches between India and Australia gets under way at Nagpur on Thursday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting.
This is a 4 match series and we start with the squads and team news.
Jasprit Bumrah is still to regain full fitness and misses out as does the injured Rishabh Pant whilst at the time of writing Shreyas Iyer is a doubt.
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav
Josh Hazlewood is a major doubt for Australia, Mitchell Starc will also miss at least the series opener and Australia will select from the remaining members squad.
Australia: Pat Cummins (C), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner
Recent Form
India
India won both test matches in the series in Bangladesh in December by margins 188 runs and then 3 wickets.
They lost to England in Birmingham by 7 wickets in July and back in March they won 2-0 at home to Sri Lanka (innings and 222 runs and then 238 runs)
Australia
Australia won a 3 match series at home to South Africa over Xmas and new year. They won the first contest by 6 wickets and the second by an innings and 182 runs before the third and final test was drawn.
Just prior to that Australia completed a 2 match series at home to West Indies and they won the first test by 164 runs and the second by 419 runs.
In June / July last year they drew a 2 match series in Sri Lanka 1-1 and in March they won a 3 match series in Pakistan 1-0.
Recent Head to Head
The most recent series came in Australia in December 20 / January 21 and despite losing the opening match of a 4 game series India hit back to win 2-1.
In 2018/19 India also won a 4 match series 2-1 on ustralian soil
Australia's most recent test matches in India came in Feb / March 2017 and again India were 2-1 winners
The Betting - 1st Test Match
At the time of writing India are 4/6 to win the match with the draw at 9/2 and Australia are 5/2
Virat Kohli is 5/2 favourite to top score for India in the first innings and Steve Smith is the same price do likewise for Australia
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
Nagpur hasn't seen a lot of test cricket but reports suggest we can expect spin and teams have been preparing accordingly.
I'll first look to the to score a 50 in the first innings market where KL Rahul is my pick at a more attractive price than the likes of Rohit and Kohli
India are likely to have more spin options than the Aussies which makes Nathan Lyon a decent candidate to be top 1st innings wicket taker for the visitors
Bets: To Score a 50 in the 1st innings, Lokesh Rahul? Yes) at 9/4 with Sunbet
Top Australia 1st Innings Wicket Taker Nathan Lyon at 11/4 with Sunbet
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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