The blockbuster five-match India-Australia Test series will get underway in Perth on November 22, with an eye on the friendly broadcast timings for viewers of both countries.
Cricket Australia (CA) on Tuesday announced their international schedule with the Optus Stadium in Perth emerging as the preferred choice of the Board for the season’s first Test match.
The series will then move to Adelaide for the day-night pink-ball Test from December 6. The remaining matches will be played in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, which will host the concluding game of the series with the New Year’s Test from January 3, 2025 (see box).
One of the most important factors behind awarding Perth the hosting rights for the first Test over Brisbane was the friendly broadcast timezone for viewers of both countries, said Peter Roach, CA’s head of scheduling.
“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.”
According to Roach, the Optus Stadium, where Australia have won all four Tests, is now comparable to the Gabba. “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... So we’re really comfortable that this gives us a great opportunity to compete with a really strong Indian team,” Roach said.
The latest edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was on Monday extended by a match to a five-match series for the first time since the 1991-92 season. India have won on all four of the past series, including back-to-back away wins in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
There is a nine-day gap between the first two Tests, which would give the players enough time to practice with the pink ball and get used to it. On their previous tour, India had lost the pink ball Test badly before bouncing back to pull off one of their greatest series triumphs.
