The first Test between India and Australia of the exciting Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 began at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on February 9, 2023, and saw the hosts showing why they dominate at home.
Pat Cummins had won the toss and decided to bat first on a pitch that was talked about a lot before the match began. The Test saw three debutants with Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat for India and Todd Murphy for Australia.
Indian bowlers were all over the Australian batters right from when openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja fell to Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj respectively.
Then a 82-run third-wicket partnership between Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steve Smith (37) gave Australians something to rejoice at. But then Ravindra Jadeja happened as he got both of the top Aussies batters out with Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw falling on consecutive deliveries and Smith following shortly after.
R Ashwin picked three wickets completing 450 scalps in Tests, while Jadeja finished with 5/47, as Australia was bundled out for 177 runs with contributions also from Peter Handscomb (31) and Alex Carey (36).
Meanwhile, Steve Smith looked completely comfortable against the spinners on this pitch and even had a short chat with Virat Kohli in between changes of ends. It was after Akshar Patel had bowled the 14th over, which ended up being a maiden one, Kohli put his arm around Smith and the duo shared some words and smiles while changing ends.
Check out the video here:
