The first of two four-day fixtures between Australia A and India A gets underway today in Puducherry, with the squads named earlier this month now sharpened into a confirmed Australia A Playing XI. Sam Konstas and Campbell Kellaway open the batting, Peter Handscomb captains from number four, and Devdutt Padikkal leads an India A side built around players who impressed through this year's Duleep Trophy.
Australia A go in with: Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Nathan McSweeney, Peter Handscomb (captain), Jason Sangha, Josh Philippe (wicketkeeper), Liam Scott, Fergus O'Neill, Todd Murphy, Corey Rocchiccioli and Brendan Doggett. Konstas and Kellaway open, McSweeney comes in at three and Sangha at five, while the bowling attack pairs Scott and O'Neill with the new ball, Murphy and Rocchiccioli for spin in subcontinental conditions, and Doggett rounding out three frontline seamers.
Devdutt Padikkal captains India A, with Sai Sudharsan — returning from a right toe injury — as his deputy. The wider squad includes Kumar Kushagra and N Jagadeesan as wicketkeeping options, Shaik Rasheed, Yash Rathod and Ayush Pandey in the batting group, and Tushar Deshpande, Anshul Kamboj, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian and Tripurana Vijay — the last replacing an injured Vijaykumar Vyshak — leading the bowling attack.
The bigger storyline sits with who Australia left out. Marnus Labuschagne was axed from Australia's ODI squad for the South Africa and Zimbabwe series earlier this month and missed selection for this India A tour entirely, with his place for next year's Border-Gavaskar Trophy now genuinely open. That makes Handscomb and McSweeney's returns here more than routine form-building — both are effectively auditioning for a middle-order Test spot against Australia's five-match tour of India, reported for January-February next year.
Jhye Richardson's return to first-class selection after multiple shoulder surgeries is the other name Australia's selectors will track closely through this series, alongside the workload of a pace group — Scott, O'Neill, Doggett and the uncapped Liam Hatcher — being tested together on surfaces nothing like home conditions. How Murphy and Rocchiccioli's spin holds up in Puducherry will matter just as much, given how the Border-Gavaskar tour is likely to be decided.
This first four-day match runs September 22-25, with a second four-day fixture following September 29-October 2, both at the Cricket Association Puducherry Siechem Stadium. Three List A matches close out the tour in October, shifting the series' focus from red-ball auditions to white-ball depth before both squads disperse back to domestic and franchise commitments.
Track session-by-session scores from Puducherry on SportGod's live matches page, and browse more cricket coverage as the Border-Gavaskar picture takes shape over the coming months.
Playing XI, squad names and the Labuschagne selection context are verified against same-day reporting on the Puducherry series, current as of September 22, 2026.
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