Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of day two of the first Test between India and Australia, happening in Nagpur.
Playing XIs:
India: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
Day 1 review:
Although India opener KL Rahul (20, 71b, 1x4) lost his wicket with just seven balls remaining for the close of play, it would seem the host has done enough to avow ascendancy on the first day of the opening Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Rohit Sharma (56 n.o; 69b, 9x4, 1x6) and nightwatchman Ravichandran Ashwin, will be resuming the Indian innings on Friday, trailing by just 100 runs with nine wickets in hand.
Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (22-8-47-5) dictated the order of the day, registering his fourth fifer against the Baggy Green, an opposition he is especially fond of. Sixty-seven of his 247 Test wickets – his highest – have come when playing against Australia.
The fact that the 34-year-old registered a seven-wicket haul in his only Ranji Trophy game in 2023, after having been out of action for five months after knee surgery, should have sounded the alarm bells for Australia.
On Thursday, he started his comeback international game right from where he left, helping restrict the visitors to 177 in the first innings.
Not long after lunch, Jadeja got wickets off back-to-back deliveries as Marnus Labuschagne (49, 123b, 8x4) and Matt Renshaw were undone by the turn. The World No. 1 Test batter fell one short of what would have been a fifty on his very first tour of India. Renshaw, meanwhile, was struck on the pad and the on-field call of ‘Out’ was upheld by the DRS.
Steve Smith (37, 107b, 7x4), holding one end until this point, targeted Axar Patel and looked to break free. He even hit three elegant boundaries in the 41st over. But Jadeja was up to the task. In the very next over, he breached Smith’s defence with the straighter delivery. Later, debutant Todd Murphy fell without bothering the scorers.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja’s spin twin, ably supported him from the other end, taking the wickets of Alex Carey (also his 450th Test scalp), Pat Cummins and Scott Boland.
Carey (36, 33b, 7x4) and Peter Handscomb (31, 84b, 4x4) got the second fifty-plus partnership of the day – the first an 82-run stand between Smith and Labuschagne – and helped fix the run rate at a point when Australia seemed to be struggling.
Earlier, in the first session, it seemed the pitch had something in it for everybody. At the ends, it had enough grass to hold the wicket together. There were a few cracks right about the centre and some patches of roughness.
Usman Khawaja’s maiden Test stint in India turned out to be merely seven minutes long, the opener undone by Mohammed Siraj’s (7-3-30-1) opening delivery. David Warner followed his partner shortly after as Mohammed Shami (9-4-18-1) removed his 400th victim in international cricket, sending the off-stump cartwheeling with a 138.8 kph corker. The left-handed batter, cramped for space, ended up exposing the gap between his bat and pad.
- Santadeep Dey
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