India vs Australia: Washington Sundar and three spinners added to squad as net bowlers

Four spinners, including white-ball specialist Washington Sundar, were reportedly added to the Indian squad as net bowlers ahead of the Border Gavaskar Series against Australia, starting in Nagpur on February 9.

The other three spinners were left-armer Saurabh Kumar, wrist spinner Rahul Chahal, left-armer R Sai Kishore.

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Sundar has been an important part of the Indian white-ball setup as a bowling all-rounder and made his Test debut against Australia in 2021 and last played Test against England in March of that year.

The inclusion of four net spinners points at spin-friendly surfaces during the India-Australia series as the Indian squad already has four spinners in R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravindra Jadeja.

The BCCI selectors also thought it was not necessary to have extra pacers for the practice sessions as the team management will take the help of local pacers at the net.

Indian team has already reached Nagpur for the opening Test and will be practicing at two venues, old and new Vidarbha Cricket Association grounds. The team began their practice at the old ground on Friday.

Australia vs India: Aussies train with 'duplicate Ashwin' ahead of 1st Test

The Australian cricket team is also gearing up for a spin-friendly surface for the Test series as its board roped in Baroda spinner Maheesh Pithiya, whose bowling action resembles Ravichandran Ashwin, as their net bowler for the India tour. 21-year-old Pithiya idolises Ashwin since he saw the veteran spinner when Pithiya was 13 years old.

Australia also have been training on tailor-made pitches to be prepared for the India series.

India's Test squad for the first two Tests against Australia: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia Test squad for the tour of India: Pat Cummins (captain), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner