Starc, Hazlewood set to become Australian new-ball bowling benchmarks in 1st test against India

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Fast bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are set to become Australia’s finest new-ball partnership when the hosts start play in the first Border-Gavaskar test as favorites against India on Friday.

Unseasonal rain leading into the five-test series may leave the wicket fresh throughout the test, which is unlikely to see familiar characteristic cracks opening, therefore making batting easier as the test progresses over the scheduled five days.

Left-arm swing bowler Starc and seam bowler Hazlewood need just two wickets to become the first Australian new-ball attack to claim 400 wickets together.

With the pitch expected to stay fresh, Australia will opt for a three-pronged pace attack with skipper Pat Cummins joining his fellow fast bowlers Starc and Hazlewood. Veteran Nathan Lyon will provide the off-spin option.

Australia will introduce Nathan McSweeney to fill the big shoes of the now-retired David Warner at the top of the Australian batting lineup, partnering lefthander Usman Khawaja. McSweeney, 25, will open for Australia, with star batsman Steve Smith dropping down the middle-order.

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Australia’s middle order has failed recently and No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne and prolific run-getter and No. 4 Smith will be looking to re-establish themselves at the top of the order.

Smith, 35, has not scored a century in his past 10 test matches but has always been notorious for scoring big in showcase series.

Australia and India are one-two in the World Test Championship standings.

India will be without skipper Rohit Sharma, who is on paternity leave, and the injured Shubman Gill, a prolific run scorer in recent times. Gill broke his finger while attempting a catch in a practice match between the Indian squad at the WACA ground last week in Perth.

Australia is perfect at the new Perth Stadium, which replaced the WACA ground. It won the first test at the ground in 2018 against India, beat New Zealand in 2019, West Indies in 2022 and Pakistan last year.

Australia has dominated world cricket under Cummins’ captaincy, but only current players Smith, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon have played in a series win over India.

“Almost every challenge that have been thrown at us we’ve stepped up,” Cummins said Thursday. “For half the change room we haven’t won the Border-Gavaskar. It’s one of the last thing to tick off for a lot of us. We know India is right up there with the best teams in the world … we’re excited.”

Cummins does not expect the firebrand approach of Warner from his young opener McSweeney.

“Davey is hard to replace in many ways. The most important thin for Nath is to play his own game.” Cummins said.

India is coming off a historic 3-0 loss to New Zealand at home, and its task in the series had been made even harder with a reshuffled batting lineup in the absence of the experienced duo of Sharma and Gill. India has won its last two series in Australia.

“We’re not carrying any baggage from India,” said skipper Jasprit Bumrah, who is standing in for Sharma. “We’re disappointed and we did have a tough series last time (at home)… we come with a fresh mindset against a different opposition. We’re very well-prepared,.”

India’s focus will be on young batting prodigy Yashasvi Jaisval, who is expected to open alongside K.L. Rahul, who will replace Sharma at the top of the order. Although India has yet to announce it playing XI for the series opener, it is most likely batsmen Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel will feature in the reshuffled batting lineup.

Jaisval, a 22-year-old left hander, has scored 1,407 test runs (at 56.28) with three centuries and eight half centuries since he made his debut against the West Indies in July 2023.

Virat Kohli, one of the finest batsmen of the modern game, like Smith has had a lean spell and had managed just two centuries in his past 60 innings.

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Teams (from):

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon.

India: K.L. Rahul, Yashasvi Jaisval, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kholi, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Washington Sundar and Mohamed Siraj.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket