The much awaited Border-Gavaskar Test series between India and Australia finally got underway in Nagpur on Thursday (February 9). Australia won the toss and opted to bat first in the four-match series opener. However, Australia got off to a pretty shaky start as both of their openers were back-to-back sent to hut which left them reeling at 2/2.
Mohammed Siraj gave India the first breakthrough by trapping in-form Usman Khawaja in front of the stumps. The umpire had initially given his decision in the favour of the batsman before India reviewed and sent back Khawaja. Later David Warner’s poor Test record in India further extended as Mohammed Shami's ripper sent the southpaw's off stump for a walk. He castled him for just one in the ongoing Test.
The dazzling middle order Australian batting duo of Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith came next to steady team's boat after a jolty start. Just when the Australia's scoreboard read 33/2, Virat Kohli dropped a golden chance to dismiss Smith in the 16th over.
Akshar Patel hit the outside edge of Smith’s bat and the ball went into the hands of Kohli standing at the slips. But Virat could not judge the ball and the ball hit one of his hands and got scattered. There was no doubt that this ball was very fast but the slip fielder should always be in position and the ball comes to him fast but Virat was not in this condition.
Here's the video…
Smith made the best use of the reprieve given by Kohli and paired up with Labuschagne to take Australian scoreboard to 76/2 till lunch.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav ans Srikar Bharat made Test debut for India while Australia handed Baggy Green to Todd Murphy. Notably, Australia haven't won a Test series in India for the past 19 years.
India (Playing XI): 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 (Playing XI): David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland.
