Live: IND vs AUS, DAY 1 - 4th Test, MCG | Live Scores & Commentary | India vs Australia

Live: IND vs AUS, DAY 1 - 4th Test, MCG | Live Scores & Commentary | India vs Australia | 2024 Series | Border Gavaskar Trophy, BGT 2024

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PREVIEW: The nostalgia of Brisbane 2021 refuses to fade but India, still reeling from a bitter home series, will be under tremendous pressure when they face an equally big Australia in a battle of two out-of-form batting units in the opening Test of the marquee Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting here on Friday. In 2018-19 and 2020-21, India proved themselves with back to back series wins but the manner in which New Zealand came, saw and defeated them on home turf recently has certainly affected an otherwise world-class unit. The truth is that some of the stars driving this unit are in the twilight of their careers. How the five-match series against Pat Cummins and his men unfolds could well decide their future. A record third World Test Championship final entry that looked imminent before the start of the New Zealand series, now seems like a distant dream. A 4-0 score-line has become an absolute necessity for India to avoid relying on other teams. In batting, three of India's top six batters have never played in Australia and two of them have a cumulative Test experience of four games. But there's something in Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel that inspires confidence. They will have Rishabh Pant, perhaps one of the finest Test batters India have produced in the last five years, and a mildly under-confident but stylish KL Rahul for company.

TEAMS:
India TEAM: Rohit Sharma (c) - Jasprit Bumrah - Yashasvi Jaiswal - Abhimanyu Easwaran - Shubman Gill - Virat Kohli - KL Rahul - Rishabh Pant (wk) - Sarfaraz Khan - Dhruv Jurel (wk) - Ravichandran Ashwin - Ravindra Jadeja - Mohammed Siraj - Akash Deep - Prasidh Krishna - Harshit Rana - Nitish Reddy - Washington Sundar

Australia TEAM: Usman Khawaja - Nathan McSweeney - Marnus Labuschagne - Steven Smith - Travis Head - Mitchell Marsh - Alex Carey (wk) - Pat Cummins (c) - Mitchell Starc - Nathan Lyon - Josh Hazlewood - Beau Webster - Josh Inglis - Brendan Doggett - Sean Abbott