Despite the two Australian spinners managing to extract much more turn off the surface than their Indian counterparts, it were the Indian spinners who dominated the proceedings on ‘Day 1’ of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy first Test match, at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur.
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After the duo of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj got rid of both the openers real quick, it were the spinners – Ravindra Jadeja (22-8-47-5) and Ravichandran Ashwin (15.5-2-42-3) who scalped the remaining eight wickets, to bundle up the Aussies on mere 177.
A couple of half-century stands – Steven Smith (37) and Marnus Labuschagne (49) for the third wicket, and then between Alex Carey (36) and Peter Handscomb (31) for the sixth wicket did look like threatening until they lasted, but to no avail ultimately.
Playing his first Test match today after July 2022, Jadeja bagged his 11th five-wicket haul in Tests, thereby breaking the back of the Aussie batting line-up.
ABC Grandstand Cricket commentators today
Australia’s ABC Grandstand radio will be covering the entire Australia tour of India for the Test series from the match venues.
Corbin Middlemas, Clint Wheeldon, Dirk Nannes, Prakash Wakankar, Geoff Lemon, Sunil Gavaskar, and Dinesh Karthik will form their commentary team.
It is worth of a mention that both Gavaskar and Karthik are also part of the English commentary panel for the Star Sports Network.
Fox Cricket commentators for India vs Australia Test series
Fox Cricket, the official broadcaster of the series in Australia, will be providing its commentary service from Australia itself, with the world feed being provided by the Star Sports Network.
Renowned former cricketers and popular commentators in Isa Guha, Allan Border, Mark Howard, Michael Hussey, Adam Gilchrist, Kerry O’Keefe, and Ian Smith will be calling the matches throughout the series for Fox Cricket.
Mark Waugh, who was initially part of the Fox Cricket commentary panel for the series, was roped in by the Star Sports after Michael Clarke was removed from the latter’s commentary team following the controversy involving his girlfriend and ex-wife.
Waugh, who is the only Aussie in the panel apart from Matthew Hayden, was a refreshing figure involved in quite some funny conversations and banter especially alongside Ravi Shastri.
He even lashed out at Virat Kohli for dropping Steven Smith’s catch at first slip off Axar Patel’s bowling, while questioning his body language and dearth of concentrating as well.
