India's Australia Tour to Begin in Late November, Perth to Host Test Series Opener: Report

India’s highly anticipated tour of Australia later this year will kickstart with Perth hosting the five-Test series opener in late November. According to a report Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney have also been penciled in as the venues of the high-profile tour.

As per The Sydney Morning Herald, Adelaide will play host to the second Test of the series and it will be a day-night contest followed by the third game in Brisbane.

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Melbourne will continue to host the traditional Boxing Day Test while the New Year’s Test stays with Sydney.

Cricket Australia is yet to finalise the schedule for its next season though and a final announcement could be made by the end of March.

2023-24 tour will be the first time since 1991-92  that the two teams will be competing in a Test series comprising five games. Australia had comprehensively beaten India back then with a margin of 4-0.

However, India have been dominant of the two sides in the past four Test series between them having won on all four occasions. This includes back-to-back Test series wins on Australian soil – 2018-19 and 2020-21 (both by similar margins of 2-1).

India’s last tour of Australia saw them bouncing back after a horror start in Adelaide, a performance that saw them being bowled out for a historic low score of 36 culminating in an eight-wicket thrashing.

The team then bounced back in remarkable fashion despite the absence of the then captain Virat Kohli who returned home after the series opener. India drew level at one-all in Melbourne before fighting to save the Sydney Test and then storming to a memorable three-wicket win in Brisbane.

India haven’t lost a series in the current ICC World Test Championship cycle. The two-time WTC runners-up began their campaign of the latest cycle last year with the West Indies tour where they won 1-0.

They then toured South Africa for another two-Test series which they drew 1-1 after losing the opener. Then they brushed aside England 4-1 in a home Test series recently and currently sit at the top of the WTC points table.