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 Pat Cummins’ captaincy, but only current players Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan 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.
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