Rohit Sharma-led Indian team will lock horns against the Prime Minister’s XI in a two-day pink-ball fixture. Along with the original schedule, an Additional fixture has been added to India’s tour of Australia. The match has been scheduled to be played at the Manuka Oval in Canberra and will be held from November 30 to December 1. This match is set to be played between the first and second Test of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
This will be a day-night match and will give India much-required practice against the pink ball under lights before of the second Test of the series which will be played in Adelaide and is set to happen under similar circumstances. India and Australia will clash in a five-Test series for the first time since 1991-92. The first Test is scheduled to be played at the Perth Stadium from November 22-26. Australia picked the World Test Championship title when they crushed India by 209 runs at The Oval last year and will be hoping to defend their title in the one-off Test is held at Lord's in 2025.
In the last two seasons, the Prime Minister's XI fixture had a four-day contest featuring West Indies in 2022 (which was also a day-night game) and Pakistan in 2023, having traditionally been a limited-overs match, but the India game has been restricted to just two days.
Australia v India Test schedule:
First Test: November 22-26, Perth
Second Test: December 6-10, Adelaide (d/n)
Third Test: December 14-18, Brisbane
Fourth Test: December 26-30, Melbourne
Fifth Test: January 3-7, Sydney
Tour match:
Prime Minister's XI v India, November 30 - December 1, Canberra (d/n)
World Test Championship‘s Journey Ahead
India reached the finals of both the ICC World Test Championship 2019-21 and 2021-23 cycles but returned empty-handed, losing to New Zealand and Australia in consecutive Finals. India would want to turn the tables down. India is currently leading the World Test Championship Table with 6 wins 2 losses and a series drawn. Australia is just behind India with 8 wins 3 losses and 1 drawn series. India leads by 68.51 points while Australia has 62.5 points. The 5 match Test series would ensure one finalist of the WTC. New Zealand and Pakistan can emerge as underdogs following their easier fixtures compared to other nations.
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