Border-Gavaskar Trophy: India in cruise control in Nagpur Test as Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma shine

Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Rohit Sharma starred as India took firm control of the first Test of a four-match series against Australia in Nagpur on Thursday.

This is Australia’s first Test tour of India in 7 years and they are under pressure to end a losing streak of three successive series against the Indians but the tourists would be gutted with their start.

Ravindra Jadeja (5 for 47) and R Ashwin (3 for 42) were the wreckers-in-chief against Australia as India raced away to a commanding position in the first Test at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. After the Indian spin twin bowled Australia out for 177, Rohit Sharma led a strong Indian response with the bat.

At stumps on Day 1, India were 77 for 1, trailing Australia by 100 runs. Australia had something to cheer for in the penultimate over of the day’s play as debutant Todd Murphy sent back KL Rahul, who lacked fluency, with a simple return catch. Rahul took his time to get going but as he was settling into his innings, lack of concentration cost him his wicket for 20 (71 balls).

Rohit Sharma remained unbeaten on 56 after getting to a free-flowing fifty and was joined by R Ashwin, who was sent in as a nightwatchman after Rahul departed.

Rohit hit Pat Cummins for boundaries off the first two balls of the innings and settled down to play the kind of innings that could further demoralise Australia on a long tour.

The Australians had expected the pitch to turn early and trained hard to deal with spin but none of their dismissals on the first day suggested any real demons on the surface.

And the way Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul dealt with the Australian bowling attack further demonstrated the fact that it was a very good first day pitch at the VCA Stadium.

Shubman Gill, who had scored a 100 in his last Test, was dropped for the Nagpur Test and the onus was on KL Rahul, the vice-captain to repay the faith of the team management. While Rohit Sharma played some stunning shots to put Australia under further pressure, Rahul was more circumspect and decided to bide his time.

JADEJA ON SONG ON COMEBACK

Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and decided to bat but he was in for an immediate shock when Usman Khawaja and David Warner fell to Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami inside 3 overs.

Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith are Australia’s best and they were in the middle much earlier than the team would have liked. But they negotiated the Indian attack expertly even as Rohit Sharma held R Ashwin back.

Ravindra Jadeja maintained remarkable control despite playing his first match in over 5 months. He gave away little in the morning session and then spun a web around the Australians in the afternoon. In his second over in the second session, Jadeja snared Marnus Labuschagne and Matt Renshaw off successive deliveries.

The biggest moment on the opening day came when Ravindra Jadeja outsmarted Steve Smith with minimum turn. Smith was playig for the spin but he was deceived despite looking solid during his 37. Luckily for India, they did not have to pay heavily for Smith’s dropped catch by Virat Kohli. To be fair to Kohli, it was a sharp chance, sharp enough even for somebody of Kohli’s catching abilities to miss it.

R Ashwin also had a field day, becoming the fastest Indian to reach 450 Test wickets when he dismissed an aggressive Alex Carey. Soon after, he sent back Pat Cummins and Australia by then had pinned their hopes on Peter Handscomb to help the team get past 200 with some support from the tail-enders.

But the Jadeja-Ashwin duo once again made life miserable for a visiting team clearly intimidated by talk of the pitch and the turn it could generate. Jadeja completed his 5-wicket haul when he got rid of Peter Handscomb and not long after, Ashwin pocketed Scott Boland as Australia folded for 177.

The pitch did not play too many tricks even though there was the odd bounce every now and then which kept batters on their toes. However, it was the accuracy of Jadeja and Ashwin that helped India take firm control of the Test.

The Australian media were relentless in their coverage of the “bizarre ploys” around the Nagpur pitch and that perhaps played into the minds of some of the Australian batters.

In fact, Khawaja and Warner were dismissed by pacers – they did not last long enough to play the spinners and some of the others showed it wasn’t impossible to survive and score runs on that pitch.