Aussies unlikely to ring changes after Perth loss

Amid all the textbooks and terabytes devoted to mind-numbing cricket numbers, none neatly capture the last time a team landed a Test win by almost 300 runs and then made more changes to their line-up for the next game than their heavily beaten rivals.

But that looms as the quirky statistical scenario for the second match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series, which India lead 1-0 after a clinical 295-run victory at Perth Stadium.

The visitors are set to field an even stronger starting XI at Adelaide Oval next month, with stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah confirming regular captain Rohit Sharma will return from paternity leave to lead the team.

In addition, it is hoped regular number three batter Shubman Gill will recover from the thumb injury that kept him out of the series opener while match-winning allrounder Ravindra Jadeja is a chance to replace fellow spinner Washington Sundar.

Despite the implosion of their top-order batting in both innings that produced scorelines of 5-38 and 4-12, and the indignity of having India call time on their second dig at 6-487 having already built a lead beyond 500, Australia Pat Cummins foreshadowed few changes to his outfit.

The sole concern heading into the next Test might be allrounder Mitchell Marsh, who Cummins conceded was "a little bit sore" after his bowling workload at Perth and has been "carrying a few niggles" since this year's white-ball tour to the UK.

But even after overseeing the heaviest home loss of his three-year captaincy tenure – the previous biggest being last year's narrow eight-run defeat to West Indies at the Gabba – and Australia's first stumble at Perth Stadium, Cummins is keeping the faith.

"I think after the Test you look at what you think your best match-up is (but) this is a sample size of one," Cummins said after the first NRMA Insurance Test finished a day early.

"Four or five days ago we thought this was our best eleven.

"So I dare say there won't be many changes going into Adelaide, but I'm not a selector. 

"I'm sure they'll get together after the game. Got a bit of work to do over the next 10 days."

Following the surprise loss to the low-ranked West Indies in the final home Test of last summer, today's defeat represents the first time Australia have dropped consecutive matches in their own backyard since the infamous South Africa series of 2016-17.

In the aftermath of hefty losses at Perth (177 runs) and Hobart (innings and 80 runs), the then-selection chair Rod Marsh stood down and the new panel under Trevor Hohns instigated six changes to the squad for the third Test of that campaign in Adelaide.

But this is an altogether different era, and the backdrop is vastly changed.

The seeds for that 2016 culling had been sown three months earlier when Australia suffered a 0-3 whitewash in Sri Lanka before starting the home summer with consecutive stumbles against the Proteas.

By contrast, Cummins' team has surrendered just one series under his leadership – last year's campaign in India where he missed the last two Tests for personal reasons – and he can claim a winning percentage of 58.6 per cent when in charge.

Furthermore, he led his men to last year's World Test Championship by defeating India at The Oval and they remain on track to defend that title as they currently remain second on the WTC table behind their Border-Gavaskar Trophy rivals.

With 10 days between the premature end of the first Test and the start of the day-night second match at Adelaide Oval on December 6, it's also been suggested some out-of-form batters might benefit from some match practice over coming days.

But Cummins dismissed the notion that belatedly shoe-horning a Test player into the upcoming Prime Minister's XI match involving India in Canberra, or even sending them back for a round of Premier Cricket was on the radar.

In part, that's because formal match conditions offer little flexibility to work on matters technical and tactical, and the prospect of a Test squad member spending a full day in the field rather than a few hours in the nets would surely be counter-productive.

Instead, the Australia skipper has indicated his squad will likely convene in Adelaide earlier than planned to ensure they are fully prepared for their first pink-ball Test since last summer's loss to the West Indies at the Gabba.

"We might change our prep a little bit and get into Adelaide a day earlier with this game finishing early," Cummins told reporters in Perth.

"Go home for a couple of days then regroup in Adelaide (to) give us an extra day of preparation leading into that second Test. 

"We'll have a daytime (training) session but also a nighttime training session. 

"No doubt the batters will want at least one hit in daylight and nighttime, and the same with fielding.

"We'll catch some balls under lights and do a fielding session during the day (it's) just a little bit different to pick up with the eye. 

"As a bowler it feels a little bit different, but one or two sessions.

"We've played a lot with pink balls (so) not as big an adjustment for us."

Australia have played 12 day-night Tests stretching back to the inaugural match under floodlights against New Zealand at Adelaide Oval in 2015, including back-to-back games against West Indies last summer.

India have been involved in only four, the most recent against Sri Lanka at Bengaluru in early 2022 and their only pink-ball encounter with Australia – at Adelaide on their previous visit in 2020-21 – saw them bowled out for 36 in the second innings.

The fact they have a two-day pink-ball fixture against the PM's XI starting on Saturday to hone their skills for a rare day-night outing should hold them in good stead for Adelaide, just as their week-long intrasquad practice in Perth got them primed for the series opener.

However, Cummins claimed he was happy with the scale and intensity of his team's build-up for the first of five Tests against India even though the rival teams produced markedly different results after evenly matched first innings.

"We thought our prep was really good leading into this Test match," he said.

"Everyone's was a little bit different. 

"I think I was the only one in the team that didn't play any red-ball cricket, but had some ODI cricket and quite similar lead-in to previous years. 

"A lot of the guys played some (Sheffield) Shield cricket and some Aussie A games for a couple of guys as well.

"It's a very individualised approach with the prep leading in. A lot of us have played a lot of Test cricket and always feel like you're pretty ready. 

"Obviously been bowling with red ball for quite a while (and) a lot of centre wickets.

"(It's) not like you turn up and feel like it's completely foreign.

"I don't think prep was the issue. We were outplayed this week."

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal