Explained: Why India needs to win the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for World Test Championship

Indian team has opted to bat first in the first Test against Australia in Perth. A shocking move was made as R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were dropped out from the XI, and Washington Sundar was taken in as the single spinner. Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy also made their Test debuts. Since Shubman Gill was ruled out, Devdutt Padikkal was taken in.

As Bumrah had won the toss and decided to bat first, he stated about the fact that since the pitch offers pace and bounce, it will help the game progress quickly.
“We are going to bat first, looks like a good wicket. Very confident with our preparation. We played a Test match here in 2018 so we know what to expect. The wicket gets quicker. Nitish makes his debut. We have 4 quicks and Washi (Washington Sundar) is the lone spinner,” said Bumrah.

Coming to the series, this is a must win for India considering the qualifications for the World Test Championship (WTC) finals. The series defeat to New Zealand was a massive blow to India’s chances, as now they have to face a difficult task of winning this ongoing series by at least a margin of 4-0 to qualify for the finals. If India loses this Test, they the team will have to depend on the results of other teams in order to qualify.

India Playing XI: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj,

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