Australia vs India: Second Test, Day 1, international cricket live scores, blog

Australia will head to Perth with revenge on the mind for the first ever Test at Optus Stadium as India look to build their advantage. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of Day 1 from 1:20pm (AEDT).

It’s been said in the lead-up to the second Test of the series that this Optus Stadium deck is going to resemble WACA pitches of old, and the images surfacing yesterday would suggest it’s going to be tough to bat on.

A pitch so green it was hard to differentiate it from the rest of the ground greeted players and the media yesterday, so it’s expected this will be a result pitch.

While the first Test in Adelaide also played out to a result and was tough to bat on, this will be a completely different type of Test match after India won the first by 31 runs.

The Australians were outplayed for the most part in Adelaide, despite the final margin only being 31 runs. They were a lot further behind, but runs from the tail end of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon ensured they kept things interesting throughout the final day of the match.

The Adelaide Test was a low-scoring, slow-moving grind to say the least. This, on a green top, may also be low-scoring, but it won’t be slow moving. The quicks are going to have a field day, but then, with the ball coming onto the bat, runs can be scored should players manage to get in.

Making a start, as used to be the case on a bouncy WACA track, will be the toughest part of the match for batsmen though, and Australia’s technique may well be found out.

What we do know is that the Indian bowling attack won’t be all that far behind the Aussies. With the pace of Japsrit Bumrah leading the way, their quicks are among the best India have ever sent to Australia, so the pressure will be on the hosts top order.

On the other side of the coin, it’s time for someone other than Cheteswhar Pujara to stand up. He may struggle with the increased bounce on this deck, so it’s probably on Virat Kohli to lead the way.

India will be without both Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin for this match though, which may well improve team balance. They are likely to play a four-pronged pace attack with Bhuvneshwar Kumar coming in, while Hanuma Vihari will bat at six and bowl some part time spin.

Australia, on the other hand, should be unchanged unless they opt to go with a fifth bowler and bring Mitchell Marsh in.

Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of Day 1 from 1:20pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.

Game information

First ball: 1:20pm (AEDT)
Venue: Optus Stadium, Perth
TV: Live, Fox Cricket 501, Channel Seven
Online: Live, Foxtel app, Foxtel now, Kayo Sports
Betting: Australia $2.15, India $2.20
Umpires: Chris Gaffaney, Kumar Dharmasena
Overall head-to-head: Played 95, Australia 41, India 27, drawn 26, tied 1
Overall record in Australia: Played 44, Australia 28, India 6, drawn 11
Overall record at Optus Stadium: Never played
Overall record at the WACA: Played 4, Australia 3, India 1
Overall series: Played 25, Australia 12, India 8, drawn 5
Overall series in Australia: Played 11, Australia 8, India 0, drawn 3

Squads

Australia
Tim Paine (c), Mitchell Marsh (vc), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Chris Tremain

India
Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rishabh Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Privthi Shaw, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Hanuma Vihari, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav