The first Test of the highly awaited four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series 2023 between India and Australia got underway at Nagpur’s VCA Stadium in Jamtha on February 9. Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bat first.
Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat made their Test debuts for India, while Todd Murphy made his Australia Test debut as well.
Mohammed Siraj and Mohammad Shami got rid of Australian openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner respectively and then Ravindra Jadeja spun his web of magic.
First to fall was Marnus Labuschagne, who was batting wonderfully well in his first innings in Tests in India and was on 49. Jadeja bowled a slower delivery, to which Labuschagne thought he could drive. But the ball dipped in the air and turned, with Labuschagne being brought out of his crease.
Bharat, on his Test debut, completed a wonderful stumping, registering his first official victim in Tests.
Check out the dismissal here:
Jadeja then had Matt Renshaw out LBW the next ball, but then he scalped the big victim of Steve Smith a couple of overs later. Steve Smith had hit Akshar Patel for three fours in an over and looked to up the run rate with Australia losing two wickets quickly.
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But then Jadeja bowled a couple of balls that went away from Smith and even got a thumbs-up from the Australian batter. But after that, he bowled one which went with the arm and didn’t turn. Smith played for the spin, leaving a tiny gap between his bat and pad and the ball snuck in and disturbed the off-stump.
Smith reacted by looking at the pitch where the ball hit and just shrugged accepting his fate and walked back for 37 runs.
Here is his dismissal:
