Day 1 of the first test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy very well belonged to the hosts as the Indian side dismissed the struggling Australians on a low 177 runs totals in just over two sessions. The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Kl Rahul in return looked solid as they came to bat, eventually ending the day on 77/1, trailing by 100 runs.
The spinners as expected were lethal and despite a small comeback with the help of Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in the middle, the side fall prey to Jadeja’s firing 5/47 combined with Ravichandran Ashwin’s 3/42. But was it the rank-turning pitches to blame? The star of the day Jadeja rubbished all the talks calling it a fairground.
Ravindra Jadeja On Pitch
The veteran all-rounder who is making a comeback after 5 months of injury break, ripped the Australian middle-order apart registering his 11th five wicket haul. When asked post the match Jadeja dismifive-wicketitics claiming Nagpur pitch being a ‘doctored’ one or a ‘rank-turner’.
“No no, this is not a rank-turner at all. There is less bounce and the wicket is slow compared to other pitches in India. It was not difficult to defend today. As the Test match progresses, we might see more turn but that is natural everywhere”. said the off spinner.
“The wicket doesn’t have much bounce so I was focusing on bowling stump to stump. I knew, if I do that, I can bring LBW and bowled into play. It was nice to get rhythm going from first ball of the first test.” he added.
What lies ahead for Australia?
While the all the conversation about the spinning wickets were around, the Australian top ordered was destroyed by the pace of Siraj and Shami. The batting came crumbling down when Indian tweakers hit the right spots.
The critics were also bewildered over Australia’s choice of neglecting the in-form Travis Head. With less than 200 runs on the board to defend, skipper Pat Cummins looked lost. Scott Boland with KL Rahul’s dismissal towards the end did provide some relief but the visitors clearly missed Starc and Hazlewood.
As the dawn breaks tomorrow, the Pat Cummins and co. will look to get the early breakthroughs before bringing in Nathan Lyon who will be their best weapon to restrict India before the lead gets out of reach.