India and Australia are set to lock horns with each other in the four-match Test series which will decide the course of World Test Championship final qualification. The all-important Border-Gavaskar series is scheduled to start from February 9. Meanwhile, right ahead of the blockbuster series, Australian coach Andrew McDonald has given a major updates on the injury and fitness of star all-rounder Cameron Green and pace spearhead Mitchell Starc.
Both the Aussie players sustained injuries during the South Africa Test series at home and have been out of action ever since. Green had broken a finger in Melbourne Test against the Proteas and did score a fifty with the injury. But as he works towards getting fit for the upcoming Test series, there are question marks about his bowling. Green is still recovering from a broken finger. He had flown to Sydney for surgery after the incident and was ruled out of the Big Bash League as well. Australia might already have received a setback as their star all-rounder Green might not be available to bowl in the opening Test.
“It probably (would have been) more likely if Cameron Green was fit and available fully with the bowling side of things,” Australian coach McDonald told The West Australian.
“That’s not realistic, so I think it’s probably further away than it would have been had Cameron been fit. His bowling will be his greatest challenge. He’s got to consult with the surgeon again tomorrow and that’s about the four-week mark – where he should be given a tick of approval that that bone has healed. After that it should be just building him up and see how he goes each session. Building confidence is the main thing," he added.
On Starc injury he told ABC Radio,"Mitch had a bowl today, he was still strapped on that finger in a splint so he is still a little while off and nothing has changed in terms of where he’s at".
“He’ll be available for the second Test match, assuming that things go well, but we can’t accelerate that with the nature of the injury.
“To mitigate any of that risk he still has to stay in the splint but for those who were down at training today, it didn’t look too dissimilar to what he produces, but just with the splint on. He obviously can’t bowl with that in a game,” he further added.
India's squad for first two Test against Australia: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, C Pujara, V Kohli, S Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia's squad: Australia Test squad for India tour: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
The Schedule
India vs Australia, 1st Test- February 9- February 13 at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur
India vs Australia, 2nd Test- February 17-February 21 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
India vs Australia, 3rd Test- March 01 - March 05 at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala
India vs Australia, 4th Test- March 9- March 13 at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
