India embarked on a historic 4-match Border-Gavaskar Cup Test cricket series at home against Australia. Unbeaten at home against Australia since 2004 and against any team in the world since 2012, India will be looking to win at least three matches in the series to qualify for the Test Championship final in London in July. But Australia, who have already confirmed their place in the finals, have entered the field with the intention of taking revenge on India, who defeated them in the last 2 series at home.
But Steve Smith criticized last month that the 2017 tour of India was given a kind of pitch for practice matches and a spin-friendly pitch in the premier matches, with pitches naturally turning favorable for spin after the first two days in India. Former player Ian Healy added some fuel to the fire by re-accusing the first match at Nagpur that the pitch was deliberately made dry on the right side of both sides to attack the six left-handed batsmen in their team with left spinners.
Splashing Stumps:
So the former Australian players and the media lashed out at the ICC for taking notice of India’s deliberate creation of a spin-friendly pitch to win. But Indians like Sunil Gavaskar retorted that you are not fit to talk about India, which defeated South Africa in 2 days on green grass at the Gaba last month.
The first match of this series started on February 9th at 9.30 am in Nagpur. Since the pitch was favorable for spin, it was seen that the situation was to accumulate big runs early on. So Australian captain Bud Cummins won the toss and declared to bat first. Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat made their debut in the Indian team. In the 2nd over of the match, Mohammad Siraj swung the new ball and dismissed the opener Usman Khawaja in lbw style.
But as the umpire refused to give out, the Indian team took a review. The fans cheered from the ground as the umpire changed his decision and declared Usman Khawaja out for 1 run as it was clearly hitting the stumps. To further celebrate them, Mohammed Shami clean bowled Australia’s star opener, David Warner, on the very first ball of the next over. In particular, Mohammad Shami’s flight off the stumps, which eluded Warner’s tackle, and Ravi Shastri’s commentary on it in his roaring element, made the fans even more excited.
Also read this: Video : Miscalculated Australia, Stumps flying at speed – India start to threaten
So from a poor start of 2/2, Australia are struggling to recover with Steve Smith – Marnes Labuschagne displaying calm batting. Earlier, miscalculating that the Nagpur pitch was favorable to India, Australia is now stumbling in the fast bowling, the art that has come to them in the early stages. In that way, India is proving that they can excel on all kinds of grounds.