finally makes his Test debut while KS Bharat was also handed the Indian cap ahead of the first match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia in Nagpur on Thursday. Suryakumar has been enjoying a brilliant run of form in limited overs cricket for the past year and was even named the ODI Player Of the Year 2022. Bharat also came into the team in place of the injured
who is facing a prolonged absence after his involvement in a car accident. In the video published by BCCI on their official Twitter handle,
handed the India cap to Suryakumar while it was senior batsman
who handed KS Bharat his India cap ahead of the debut.
Australian skipper
won the toss and elected to bat first.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins said at the toss, "We are going to bat. Looks like a pretty even wicket toward the middle. 2017 was a big series. Cannot wait to get this started. We have had good preparation. We feel we are really well placed. Two changesin. Handscomb in for
."
Indian skipper
said at the toss, "We would have batted too. Looks pretty dry. There will be help for spinners. We got to wait and see how much it does. Yesterday when we started training we did see some seam movement for the pacers up front. We have had good preparation for the last 5-6 days. We trained on the aspects in store. This is a big one. We know the importance of the series but we also understand it is about winning one session at a time. It is a long series. Three spinners, two seamers, Bharat and Suryakumar Yadav are debuting."
Australia (Playing XI):
,
,
,
,
,
,
(w), Pat Cummins(c),
, Todd Murphy,
India (Playing XI):
Rohit Sharma(c),
, Cheteshwar Pujara,
, Suryakumar Yadav,
(w),
,
,
, Mohammed Shami,
.
(With ANI inputs)