Bengaluru: With BCCI president Sourav Ganguly mentioning the possibility of India playing a day-night Test against Australia later this year, the talks had gained momentum. Now, it has emerged that Virat Kohli and his band will indeed play a pink ball Test against the Aussies at Adelaide when they visit Down Under from December.
India had already played their inaugural day-night Test against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, last year and this will be India’s first D/N Test in Australia. However, India will start their tour of Australia with the first Test at Gabba, Brisbane – a venue that they did not play during their successful visit in 2018-19, a report in ESPNCricnfo stated.
India had beaten Australia last time for a historic series triumph Down Under and also became the first Asian nation to register a Test series win in Australia. The Cricket Australia will announce the formal summer schedule later this week.
The last two Tests of the series – Boxing Day and New Year matches – will be held in Melbourne and Sydney respectively. This time India will not play a Test match at Perth, venue of Australia’s lone victory by 146 runs during the 2018-19 series. However, India will play an ODI match at the OPTUS stadium.
Australia will start their summer Test programme with a series against Afghanistan, and it will be the first time Aussies will be playing the Asian nation in a Test match. Afghanistan had made their Test debut against India in 2018 at Bengaluru.
