Rohit Sharma and co. humbled Australia comprehensively by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) series played at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Pat Cummins’s men could not find an answer to India’s relentless spin attack as India’s spin twins, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin, shared 15 wickets among them in the game. Captain Rohit Sharma remained the main man with the bat, helped gracefully by solid contributions of 84 runs by Axar Patel and 70 runs by Jadeja towards the end.
After conceding a first innings lead of 223 runs, the Australian batter bundled out for mere 91 runs inside one session. With that, the hosts, who are eyeing a hat-trick of Test series win against Australia, have taken a 1-0 lead in the 4-Test series. Moreover, the result of the ongoing series will also decide whether India can make it to the finals of the Global Test Championships to be played at the Oval.
Australia will meet India for the second Test at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, on February 17
Talking to the media post-game, India skipper Rohit Sharma was asked if the Australians could bounce back in the remaining Tests in the series, similar to how the Indians bounced back in the 2020-21 series. The India skipper believed that the visitors weren’t to be taken lightly despite a dominant showing in the first Test.
“Australia is always a good team. The good thing about this team is we don’t think about what has happened in the past. It’s important to stay in the present. Lot of the guys who played in that series are not here for Australia. For us as well, a few guys are missing,” said Rohit at a press conference after India’s win in Nagpur.
Here is a video of the Press Conference:
“Australia love playing Test cricket. They pride themselves in coming out and representing their country. We are quite aware of them bouncing back. We are pretty much aware of what they can do as a team. By no means are we ruling them out. We want to play the cricket that we played in this game,” the 35-year-old added.
The two teams will next meet at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi for the second of the four Tests to be played in the BGT series on February 17.
