Australia drop Head, Murphy debuts against India in Nagpur

NAGPUR, India, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Australia dropped middle-order batter Travis Head and handed uncapped off-spinner Todd Murphy his debut for the opening test against India in Nagpur on Thursday.

Touring captain Pat Cummins won an important toss and elected to bat in spin-friendly conditions at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.

“We know those conditions well,” Cummins said.

“We know we’re going to have to tweak a few things to how we play in Australia, can’t wait.”

For India, Suryakumar Yadav, the top-ranked Twenty20 batter, will make his test debut alongside wicketkeeper KS Bharat.

India captain Rohit Sharma said they too would have preferred to bat first.

“We’d have batted first but I think we’ve got a quality bowling attack and hopefully we can restrict them to as low as possible,” Rohit said.

“We do understand the importance of the series. It’s about coming out and winning that session, and not to think too far ahead.”

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Delhi, Dharamsala and Ahmedabad host the other matches of the four-test series.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ravinda Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland

Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford

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