Will India Repeat 2023 World Cup Final Mistake Vs Australia? Bizarre 1st Test Pitch Strategy Revealed

The Indian team is set to lock horns with Bangladesh in the first Test starting from September 19 at the M Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The Indian team will return to playing red-ball cricket after a long wait of six months as the last time they were spotted playing Test cricket was back against England in a five-match series in March. The BCCI appointed former South Africa pacer Morne Morkel as the bowling coach of the Indian team. 

According to the report in the Indian Express, under the coaching of Gautam Gambhir and Morkel, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Yashasvi Jaiswal were spotted playing in two nets. The black soil wicket was assigned to the spinners while the Indian speedsters were given the red soil pitch.

The MA Chidambaram stadium’s pitch has always been known to help spinners and therefore the Indian team is experimenting with their options. The Indian team has added Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel as the spin bowling options while the pace bowling department will be led by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Yash Dayal.

The report also stated that the Indian team has roped in the likes of Tamil Nadu's S Ajith Ram, M Siddharth, and P Vignesh as the net bowlers. In the form of pacers, team India has added Arpit Guleria, Gurnoon Brar, Yudhvir Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Simarjeet Singh, Gurjapneet Singh as net bowlers.

The upcoming home series is a part of the ongoing World Test Championship 2023-2025, where the Indian team is standing at the top of the chart. As of now, Rohit Sharma's led team has collected 68.52 percentage points,  while Bangladesh are at fourth place, with 45.83 percentage points. The Bangla Tigers are coming to play the series against India on the back of a brilliant series win against Pakistan recently and they will be looking to continue the same momentum against the host nation.