Chennai, Feb 21:
Shrugging off disappointments from the last season, India will seek to reaffirm their supremacy on home soil when they take on a new-look Australian side in the first cricket Test here tomorrow in what promises to a thrilling four-match series.
The Indian team under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s leadership will ideally look to re-establish their invincibility at home — which has largely been dented by their 1-2 Test series defeat against England last year.
Australia, on the other hand, will be happy to emulate England and considering that they have come with a no-so experienced side will make it even more praiseworthy.
India versus Australia series over the years have had some memorable matches and one would expect that it won’t be any different this time around.
While someone like Sachin Tendulkar would like to face the challenges thrown by Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson head on, the likes of Phil Hughes, Matthew Wade, Ed Cowan and David Warner will aim at successfully negotiating the spin threat of Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha.
Australia announced their playing XI 48 hours prior to the start of the game and predictably kept only one specialist spinner in Nathan Lyon in their line-up.
The visitors will have a three-pronged pace attack led by Siddle while Moises Henriques beat Glenn Maxwell to a ‘Baggy Green’ mainly because of his ability to bowl seam-up as Shane Watson will be playing purely as a batsman.
The Indians however have some brainstorming to do before selecting their playing XI.
Among the slots that will be up for grabs, the foremost will be that of Virender Sehwag’s opening partner.
Squads
Australia (from): Michael Clarke (captain), Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade (wk), Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Glenn Maxwell (12th man).
India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Match starts at 9.30 am (IST). (PTI)
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