IND vs AUS Tests: Team India Begin Prep for Border-Gavaskar Trophy; Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja Sweat it Out in Nets, see Pics

The India vs Australia Test series will begin on February 9 with first of the four matches scheduled to take place at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur and Men in Blue have already begun their prep

Source: Twitter

Team India began the prep for the upcoming four-match Test series vs Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. India are the current holders and would pose a big challenge for the visiting Australians at home. But the win won't come easy. On Friday, Indian batters started the nets session as throwing specialists had a long day at work. The likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshewar Pujara, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja batted in the nets for a long time in Nagpur in order to get some much-neede practice with first Test less than a week away from today.

BCCI shared some pics of India's first nets session ahead of the India vs Australia Test series:

And the practice continues....#INDvAUS https://t.co/qwRUSxcLBY pic.twitter.com/5mECrOjWiG

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 3, 2023

All eyes will be on Virat Kohli, who has not hit a Test ton for more than 3 years now. His last Test century came in November 2019 vs Bangladesh at home. Since then, thanks to the pandemic and India playing lesser Tests in T20 World Cup cycles, Kohli has not been able to score a ton in the format. He broke the long wait for his 71st international ton last year and this year he would be eager to get to his first Test in ages. 

With Rishabh Pant missing, Kohli and Pujara will have to be extra careful and play with more responsibility. They are the most experienced batters in the side and with Pant and even Shreyas Iyer, the batting lineup, they got to bat well in the series. The depleted batting lineup is a concern for India as they ponder about the team combinations. Would Suryakukar Yadav play or Shubman Gill and whether to accomodate both, should KL Rahul done the wicketkeeping gloves, are some questions Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid will need to answer in the coming week.

The 2nd Test is in Delhi from February 17 to 21 followed by third Test in Dharamsala from March 1 to 5 and fourth from March 9 to 13 in Ahmedabad.