The Indian men’s cricket squad, with the exclusion of captain Rohit Sharma, has arrived in Australia ahead of a five-test series against Pat Cummins’ men. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 has been scheduled to commence on the 22nd November in Perth and in view of that, the Indian squad will engage in several practice sessions in WACA Stadium. It was on Sunday evening that Virat Kohli became the first Indian cricketer to reach Australia. The first group of Indian players that consists of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar among others arrived on Monday.
The Indian squad has arrived at WACA to commence preparations for the upcoming test series that promises to be highly competitive. In fact, there are many pictures circulating on social networks where net facilities of WACA are being screened off. This kind of strategy was adopted by the Indian side last year in 2022 as well when the team was training in the stadium before the T20 World Cup.
“WACA nets are screened off to the public. Which of course, means, India are in the building. This was the case too when India was in Perth for the T20 World Cup in 2022,” a cricket journalist from Forbes wrote on social media alongside the image.
None of the tests in the upcoming five-match Test series between India and Australia will be hosted by WACA. The first Test match in the series that was originally going to be played in Perth will take place at the Optus Stadium instead. India has only played once in a test match held at the Optus Stadium and that time the team led by Virat Kohli lost the match by 146 runs.
India will head to Canberra for a two-day pink ball warm-up match against Prime Ministers XI following the first Test match in Perth which will be played on November 30. The India-Australia day-night Test match is set for Adelaide Oval from December 6 – 10. In the last Test match before this one, which was a pink ball match in Australia, India folded for 36 runs in their second innings.
While Rohit Sharma, India’s captain is expected to miss the first match of the series for personal reasons, he is likely to participate in the remaining four games. In the absence of Rohit, star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will captain India in the first Test.
