As Pat Cummins chooses to bat first, Australia has opted to pair Nathan Lyon with Todd Murphy.

In the first match of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series that Australia is playing India in for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Australia gave the debuting position to Todd Murphy. On Thursday, February 9, the match between Australia and India will take place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first on what is anticipated to be a spin-friendly wicket.

In preparation for the highly anticipated test series, Australia included as many as four spinners in their playing lineup. Nathan Lyon, a fellow off-spinner, will serve as the leader of the attack, while Murphy will make up the second member of the 2-man spin attack. Mitchell Swepson, who spins with his leg stump, and Ashton Agar, who spins with his left arm, did not play for the visitors in the first test.

Murphy, who is 22 years old, has been in seven first-class matches for Victoria and has taken 29 wickets during that time.

Updates on the first day of the first test between India and Australia

In the meanwhile, Australia chose Peter Handscomb over the player Travis Head, who had been in good form recently and had done well for Australia during their tour to India in 2017. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was Handscomb’s last appearance for India in a Test match, which took place in 2019 at home.

There are currently four left-handed batters in Australia’s batting lineup: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Matt Renshaw, and Alex Carey, who bats in the position of wicketkeeper. The decision to omit Travis Head may have been made to remove an additional left-handed hitter from the lineup.

It remains to be seen how successful two off-spinners will be against the Indian batting team, which will bat last on the Nagpur surface, which has been the focus of a lot of attention in the lead-up to the first game of the series.

Pat Cummins, when asked about the next test in Nagpur, spoke about the team’s preparation and said that everyone is feeling positive. Notably, Australia held a spin camp that lasted for two days in Sydney before they travelled to Bengaluru for a training camp that lasted for four days and consisted of simulating spin-friendly circumstances.

Playing XI for the first test match between India and Australia, which took place in Nagpur: Australia’s David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), Todd Murphy, Nathan Lyon, and Scott Boland. India’s Pat Cummins was the captain of the Indian team.

India: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj