Pratik Kute: I would be surprise if I dont see Ashwin in Playing 11, considering the past matches at the new Perth Stadium and how Nathan Lyon proved to be lethal in the 2nd innings. Further Reddy and Ashwin can play the role of extra batters and expect they can add 100 runs amongst them and 3 tail bowlers.

Parva Vyas: Historic series this! All eyes on this Indian team in transition. However, I am confident India will do what they have always done: stand up and deliver. With both teams containing talisman after talisman and a potent mixture of experience and youth we will witness pure box office stuff folks!

Welcome to our live coverage. This is Sagar Chawla and I'll be joined by MS Ramakrishnan and Praveen Kumar to bring you all the action. Share your thoughts, memories, expectations and trepidations about the series using the 'Have Your Say' link on the desktop site.

9am local, 6.30am IST: Hello everyone! Rarely does a 5am alarm sound as good as it did this morning! It's the start of what is always a special time on the cricketing calendar - the Australian Test summer. But that's not all. Making it significantly more special this time is the arrival of India to resume a rivalry that many consider to be the biggest in international cricket at the moment. There's so much riding on it for both teams who are No.1 and No.2 in the world. Australia, having been beaten at home by India on their previous two tours, will want to set things right and safeguard their legacy. India, having suffered a shocking whitewash at the hands of New Zealand, will be desperate to bounce back amid question marks around their aging players. Then there's the whole deal with the qualification for the WTC final as well. We've all waited for this for a long time. Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney. Five Tests, no less. And it begins right here...

Preview

IT WAS interesting watching the reactions to India’s 3-0 thrashing at the hands of New Zealand in Australia. While overall, it’s safe to say the result was welcomed with glee and delight on these shores, the immediate thought then shifted to how it could impact what would happen when the same Indian team landed here. The whitewash didn’t suddenly seem as funny anymore.

For, only a few weeks prior to the Black Caps completing the clean-sweep in Mumbai, Rohit Sharma’s team was being spoken about very differently in Australia. In some circles, they were talked up as being indomitable. In others as the team to beat, with many wondering if Pat Cummins’ team would have it in them to set the record straight after 10 long years.

This was also when the home team were still unsure about who their new Test opener would be along with the duration of Cameron Green’s injury layoff and if whether David Warner was indeed serious about making a Test comeback.

So convinced were many in Australia about India’s might that even despite them losing the first Test to the Kiwis in Bengaluru, their second innings response led by Sarfaraz Khan was being highlighted as one of the main reasons for them to be feared.

It all changed very quickly though after the drubbing. And as the lengthy build-up to the highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy leads in to the start of the first Test, those concerns over how Australia might cope with India have been replaced with worries over if this Indian team has it in them to compete against the fired-up Aussies looking to regain bragging rights.

Indian cricket does seem to be in an interesting position with the prospect of transition seemingly very imminent. The last Test two tours to Australia, for the record, have been era-defying ones, firstly when they broke the draught and won for the first time ever in 2018-19 before showcasing the seemingly endless depth of Indian cricket by winning the dramatic 2020-21 series in the most unexpected of fashions. This time around, there’s more a dread of a culmination of a highly successful phase for India against their arch-rivals, alongside that of a few hall-of-fame worthy cricketers.

Australia on the other hand have everything to play for, despite a number of their own players now approaching the twilight of their own careers. But for many of them, this could also be the last chance to experience holding the prestigious Border Gavaskar Trophy aloft.

Either way, it’s not just pride at stake over the next 6 weeks. It’s legacy. It’s history.

When: Australia v India, 1st Test, November 22-26, 2024, 10:20 hrs Local Time, 13:20 hrs AEST, 07:50 hrs IST

Where: Optus Stadium, Perth

What to expect: Perth has resembled Melbourne over the last few days, with cloudy skies and intermittent showers. Australia in fact had their entire practice session washed off three days out from the opening Test. The cloud-cover has stayed throughout the week though, despite the sun breaking through a lot more on Thursday. Though curator Isaac McDonald has sounded largely confident of his ‘spicy’ surface holding up over the course of the contest, the lack of sun on it has been irksome. And that could potentially lead to the surface being a tad tacky at start but also then opening up the possibility of divots as the Test match progresses with uneven bounce becoming a factor much earlier than expected.

Team News

Australia

For all the hype around Australia’s search for a new opener, it’s quite something how stable the rest of their team has been. With Steve Smith sliding back to No 4 after four Tests, the only other change, apart from Nathan McSweeney making his Test debut. It’ll also be one of those summers where the core of the Australian team will all be over 30, with the debutant the only one in his 20s, further emphasizing the experience and stability of this Australian team.

Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

India

Jasprit Bumrah was almost chuckling when he let the media know that the team management and he had decided upon a team combination a day out from the Test. Not that he was going to reveal it at the press conference. But based purely on observations from the practice sessions, it was safe to confirm that R Ashwin would be playing his 11 Test in Australia in what is his fifth tour. That leaves the intriguing possibility of Nitish Kumar Reddy coming into the side as a young all-rounder who’s largely untested across many levels. The make-up of India’s pace attack will be equally interesting with Prasidh Krishna expected to play but with some thought around Harshit Rana still being in contention.

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, R Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammad Siraj/Harshit Rana

Squads:

India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj, Sarfaraz Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar, Abhimanyu Easwaran

Australia Squad: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins(c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Scott Boland