IND vs AUS Day 1 morning bulletin: The first IND vs AUS Test at the Optus Stadium in Perth is off with a few surprises in terms of team selection of the Indian playing XI.

As The Indian Express had reported late on Thursday night that Nitish Reddy and Harshit Rana are likely to be handed Test debuts in the first IND vs AUS Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. That is precisely what has happened.

As Sriram Veera, The Indian Express’ man on the ground in Australia notes from the stadium, “The debut caps were just given away to Nitish Reddy and Harshit Rana. Virat Kohli handed it to Reddy, while R Ashwin presented it to Rana.”

The report had also mentioned that the Indian cricket team’s think tank would opt to pick off-spinner Washington Sundar over Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Washington Sundar had a remarkable series against New Zealand, where India were humbled at home. In the series at home against New Zealand, Washington Sundar claimed 16 wickets in the two Tests he played, including a 10-wicket match haul in Pune.

9:19 am (local time in Perth) | 6.20 am (IST): “With 30 minutes to go for the toss, not much change in the crowd scene, I’m afraid,” writes in Sriram Veera. “Not many inside and neither are they ‘streaming in through the turnstiles’. Surprisingly. The Indian origin crowds too haven’t yet turned up in any significant numbers. Of course the official start of play is at 10.20, an hour away. With the entry and exit a breeze in this large stadium, one can afford to come close to start and still get to your seat before the first edge carries through to second slip.”

10:06 am (local time in Perth) | 7.36 am (IST): Finally crowd coming in. And there’s some colour and noise.

India won the toss at Perth and chose to bat first.

The BCCI have issued a statement regarding Shubman Gill. “Shubman Gill sustained a left thumb injury during Day 2 of match simulation at The WACA. He was not considered for selection for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring his progress on a daily basis.”

“This looks like a good wicket,” notes Jasprit Bumrah, who is captaining India in the absence of Rohit Sharma. “For our batters and our team [the WACA] was a great experience. We played a Test here in 2018 so we know what to expect. The wicket gets quicker after the first session.”

His counterpart Pat Cummins adds: “We were 50-50, either way we are pretty happy. Feel well placed, pretty fresh. Any format we (India-Australia) play seems fiercely fought. Nathan McSweeney makes our debut at the top of the order.”

India Playing XI: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj

Australia Playing XI: Nathan McSweeney, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood