India vs Australia Test series to start in Perth on 22 November

India’s tour of Australia in November will get underway with a Test at the Perth Stadium. The match scheduled to start on 22 November will see Perth replace Gabba as the traditional venue for Test series openers. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will then move to Adelaide for the day-night Test, Brisbane, Melbourne for Boxing Day and Sydney for the New Year’s Test.

After Perth, the second Test will be a day-night pink-ball encounter at Adelaide Oval from 6-10 December. The third Test will take place in Brisbane from 14-18 December. The fourth Test will be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the traditional Boxing Day slot on 26 December. The fifth and final Test will be at the Sydney Cricket Ground starting 3 January.

Australia have won all four of their matches at Perth’s new stadium. It started with a win against India in December 2018, although India went on to claim the series. Perth was not chosen as the venue when India toured in 2020-21 series, which India also won when the final Test was held in Brisbane.

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Peter Roach, Cricket Australia’s head of scheduling, said the decision to keep the first Test in Perth over Brisbane was due to friendly broadcast timezone for both Australian east coast audiences and India viewers.

“The clear advice from our national team is that there is a preference to start series strongly at venues where they’re really comfortable and Perth and Brisbane they believe are somewhat comparable in terms of the advantage they get out of that,” Roach said. “They’re the hardest and bounciest pitches in Australia. They also believe that playing day-night Tests in Adelaide is a significant advantage and the stats there are pretty conclusive too.

“So they will look at this schedule and some will say Gabba first would have been better than Perth. Others will say Perth then Gabba. I think that gap has really closed in recent times and the way our players think about that, and having Adelaide as the day-night Test, they’ll be really buoyed about that again. So we’re really comfortable that this gives us a great opportunity to compete with a really strong Indian team.”

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Outgoing Western Australia Cricket CEO Christina Matthews is hopeful of a big crowd in Perth after disappointing attendances recently, although her preference was to host the pre-Christmas Test.

“I would be looking at crowds of 30-35,000 on day one [for India],” Matthews told ESPNcricinfo. “Getting a space in the calendar is really important. Our preference is the last Test before Christmas. But if it’s the first Test, as we’ve had [the past two years], if we know that’s when it’s going to be then it makes it easier for everybody to plan. If we can know if it’s the first Test of every summer or the third Test every summer, that’s the important thing.”

The nine-day gap between first and second Tests has reportedly been kept to give India’s players some specific pink-ball practice and options for a practice match are being considered. A Prime Minister’s XI match in Canberra is being speculated but whether it is before or after the first Test remains to be seen.

India Test series vs Australia:

1st Test: 22-26 November at Perth Stadium, Perth

2nd Test: 6-10 December at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

3rd Test: 14-18 December at The Gabba, Brisbane

4th Test: 26-30 December at the MCG, Melbourne

5th Test: 3-7 January at the SCG, Sydney