India begin preparations for Nagpur Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy series

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New Delhi | The Indian Test team, led by opener Rohit Sharma, on Friday began preparations for the first Test against Australia starting on February 9 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav were among the first players to take batting practice in the nets on the social media accounts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Ravindra Jadeja, who was declared fit to join the series after playing Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy match against Tamil Nadu, was also seen practicing.

“Team India begins their preparations for the Border Gavaskar Trophy ahead of the first Test in Nagpur,” read the captions on BCCI’s social media accounts.

Australia, on the other hand, are currently training at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, where they have been practicing since Thursday.

Australia and India are currently ranked number one and two respectively in both the MRF ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings and the ongoing ICC World Test Championship 2023 cycle. Also, both the teams will play a series of four Test matches.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is currently held by India, having won the last three series against Australia in 2017, 2018-19 and 2020-21. India has hosted 14 Test series against Australia and holds an 8-4 lead, with two series being drawn.

Eight of these Test series have been played in India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with the hosts holding a 7–1 series lead at the time and a 16–5 win–loss ratio in 25 Tests, while Australia finished last. Won the Test series in India in 2004.(IANS)

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