Border- Gavaskar Trophy 2nd Test Match ( Pre Start)

India was 1-0 down in the Border Gavaskar trophy played between India and Australia as Australia beat India comprehensively in the 1st Test Match played at Pune. India will try to won the 2nd Test to get level in the 4 match test series as they cannot afford another defeat at the hands of Aussies.

The 2nd Test match was played on M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, India between 4th to 8th March. Indian team and 11 was looking like this in the 2^nd Test match: Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Abhinav Mukund, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul.

Team news was not good as M Vijay was out of the match as he was injured and Abhinav Mukund makes his way in the team as other opening batsman along with K L Rahul.

Australian team and 11 was looking like this in this 2^nd Test Match: Shaun Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner, Steve O Keefe, Steven Smith (c), Mitchell Marsh, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Peter Handscomb, Matt Renshaw.

India needed to win this match desperately to have any chance of winning this 4 Match test series.

India won the toss and decided to bat first.

India started the innings with K L Rahul and A Mukund who was making his debut for India. And for Australia Pace bowlers, M Stark and Josh H started the proceedings.

Pitch Report: Pitch was expected to play well and as obvious will give more help and assistance to spin bowlers and will help fast bowlers to bowl Reverse Swing as well when the ball gets a bit old may be after 20 or 30 over’s.

Writers Analysis:  India did well to win the toss and decided to bat first but exclusion of M Vijay will hurt India, though A Mukund is also a very decent top order batsman. I think India missed a trick here, they should have gone with 3 spinners here either with 5 bowlers or even 4 bowlers as we mostly see R Ashwin with the new ball many a times started the proceedings for India.