It would be entirely safe to conclude that India have dominated proceedings on the first day of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test match against Australia in Nagpur. Just 100 runs behind Australia’s first innings total of 177, the home team would be looking to make optimum use of their nine remaining wickets to ideally bat the opposition out of the match.
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Assuming that the same happens, predictions of a few experts and fans will come true with respect to India’s first innings being enough for them to gain a 1-0 lead in this four-match series.
Playing for India for the first time since Asia Cup 2022, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja registered an 11th Test five-wicket haul to trouble the Australian batters on the first day of the series itself. Jadeja, who picked bowling figures of 22-8-47-5, dismissed the likes of Marnus Labuschagne (49), Steven Smith (37) and Peter Handscomb (31) on Thursday.
Pehla din Bharat ke naam. #INDvsAUS
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 9, 2023
Playing a Test match after almost 11 months, India captain Rohit Sharma (56*) scored a 15th Test half-century at a strike rate of 81.15 to hand his team with a mammoth advantage in the evening session. Having kick-started the innings with a couple of boundaries off his counterpart Pat Cummins, Sharma hit a total of nine fours and a six before Stumps, Day 1.
Why Ajinkya Rahane is not playing in Test cricket for India?
Although India made as many as five changes to their Playing XI for this match, there was still no place for experienced campaigners namely Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. With neither of the three players part of a 17-member squad for the first two Tests, it will require some doing for them to earn a Test comeback.
Rahane, 34, last played for India during the tour of South Africa last year. Been dropped due to poor form, Rahane hasn’t given up on the dream of playing international cricket again. Leading Mumbai in the ongoing season of Ranji Trophy, Rahane scored 634 runs across 11 innings at an average of 57.63 with the help of two centuries and a half-century.
Ishant, meanwhile, hasn’t played international cricket since November 2021. Also dropped on form, the 34-year old pacer rarely represents Delhi in domestic tournaments. It is noteworthy that this is the first time when India are playing a Test match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium without Ishant part of the Playing XI.
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Kumar, on the other hand, had represented India across both the white-ball formats in 2022. However, the last of his 21 Test matches had come over half-a-decade ago primarily due to frequent injuries. Although eager for a Test comeback at one point in time, readers must note that the 33-year old player hasn’t played a single first-class match in this period despite confirming all-format availability for India.
