Perth's Optus Stadium has replaced Adelaide Oval as Cricket Australia's preferred choice for the series opener against India. The relatively convenient broadcast timezone for viewers in both nations has been cited as an important reason for the switch
The highly-awaited Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 Test series between India and Australia will commence at Perth's Optus Stadium on November 22. The series is usually a four-Test affair, but has been extended to five Tests for the first time since 1991-92. (More Cricket News)
After the opener in Perth, the series will move to Adelaide for a day-night pink-ball Test from December 6-10, which will be followed by Brisbane (December 14-18) and Melbourne for the traditional Boxing Day Test (December 26-30). The tour will end with the New Year's Test in Sydney from January 3-7.
The Test series is a part of next summer's international schedule released by Cricket Australia (CA) on Tuesday (March 26, 2024). You can check out the full schedule of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, as well as other series in the Australian summer below.
Optus Stadium has replaced Adelaide Oval as Cricket Australia's preferred choice for the season opener. One of the primary factors behind awarding Perth the hosting rights for the first Test was the relatively convenient broadcast timezone for viewers of both India and Australia, 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."
As per Roach, the Perth venue, where Australia have won all four Tests they have played so far, 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 and the way our players think about that, and having Adelaide as the day-night Test, they'll be really buoyed about that again.
"So we're really comfortable that this gives us a great opportunity to compete with a really strong Indian team," Roach said.
India have won the Border Gavaskar Trophy the last four times, including back-to-back away series victories in 2018-19 and 2020-21. But Pat Cummins and Co defeated India in the World Test Championship final in London in 2023.
(With PTI inputs)