Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Rohit Sharma’s hundred in Nagpur could be series defining against Australia. The India captain stood firm as his batting colleagues failed to live up to their billing in the first match of the four-Test series.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Feb 10, 2023 14:49 IST
Rohit Sharma scored his first Test century as captain in Nagpur vs Australia (AP Photo)
By Rajarshi Gupta: Rohit Sharma became the 10th India captain to score a Test hundred against Australia. Two of Rohit’s former India captains, MS Dhoni (2013) and Virat Kohli (2014) had done that in style in rather challenging conditions.
Almost 10 years ago, MS Dhoni had scored a stroke-filled 224 in Chennai against the likes of Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon. Incidentally, like the Nagpur TesT which is the first Test of the current edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, that Chennai match was also the first Test of the series which India went on to win 4-0.
In 2014, Virat Kohli stood in for an injured MS Dhoni and hit twin hundreds in his first Test as captain. India lost the match after falling short in a heroic chase and then lost the series a few weeks later but those two knocks would be the marker for India’s domination against Australia over the next several years.
India vs Australia, 1st Test Day 2 Updates
On Friday, India were in trouble after debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy ripped apart the Indian batting line-up. After dismissing KL Rahul at the stroke of stumps on the first day, Murphy snared a well-settled R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli. Nathan Lyon then snaffled Suryakumar Yadav as India lost half their side.
Rohit Sharma found an able ally in Ravindra Jadeja after a series of poor shots had let the hosts down. Without taking anything away from Murphy, Rahul, Pujara and Kohli particularly, fell to ordinary balls.
It was up to Rohit Sharma now to keep India in the game. Ravindra Jadeja is one of the best all-rounders in Test cricket; his batting has come leaps and bounds in recent years and he was not going to throw his wicket away as easily as some of the top-order batters had done.
Earlier on the second day, Rohit Sharma had pulled Pat Cummins for a six and for all purposes, forced the Australia captain out of the attack. The Aussies are playing the Nagpur Test with 4 specialist bowlers and that meant the bulk of the work had to be done by the two off-spinners and Scott Boland, playing his first Test in Asia. They were all impressive but Rohit Sharma found a way to not just stay at the crease but to score runs at a pace which kept the visitors on tenterhooks.
Incidentally, Pat Cummins returned to the attack in the first over after tea and dismissed Rohit Sharma with a superb delivery. The India captain fell for 120 and it was an innings that would be spoken of for years for the sheer grit and skills on a difficult pitch.
