Australia will take on India in the first Test of the four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday, February 9. The Australian vice-captain, Steve Smith admitted that the Test series in India would be tough and insisted that a series win would be better than the Ashes series.
The biggest challenge for the Australian team is to defeat the Indian team at their home ground in the Test series. The Australian team held a brief pre-series camp in Sydney on spin-friendly wickets ranging from rank-turners to slow-turners, with SG balls to help the players adapt to the conditions. They practiced on customized pitches in Alur, Bengaluru, to face the spin challenge.
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In a video uploaded by cricket.com.au, Steve Smith said that India is the most difficult place to win a Test match. He hoped that they could win the series this time.
“It’s a very difficult place to win… a Test match let alone a Test series. So you know if we can knock down a huge mountain. I think if we can win India that’s bigger than the Ashes Series,” Steve Smith said.
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The Australians will look to repeat their feat from 2004, when they won the series 2-1 on Indian soil. The Aussies last played Test cricket in India in 2017 and beat the hosts by 333 runs in the first Test in Pune, but lost the series 2-1. Smith was the highest run-scorer with 499 runs at an average of 71.29 in the previous tour.
The second test will be held in Delhi (February 17-21), the third in Dharamsala (March 1-5), and the fourth in Ahmedabad (March 9-13). Following the Test series, India will host three ODIs, with the first match starting in Mumbai on March 17. The remaining matches will be played in Visakhapatnam (March 19) and Chennai (March 22), respectively.
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