Despite all the heated debate between the former cricketers and the media of India and Australia regarding the Nagpur pitch, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy began in the right spirit. Virat Kohli, generally the aggressor in the field, took the lead role in displaying great camaraderie with the Australian batters. Ravichandran Ashwin and Rohit Sharma too shared light moments with Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in the first session of the first Test match in Nagpur on Thursday.
It all started when Ravindra Jadeja produced a nerve-racking delivery that went one past Labuschagne in his very first over. The Australia batter turned towards Kohli, who, standing in the slip cordon, gestured that the ball should have been left alone. The friendly exchanges continued with Smith and Labuschagne giving a thumbs up to Axar Patel and Jadeja for beating their bat.
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The most delightful among all these was perhaps the lighter moment between Virat Kohli and Steve Smith in the 14th over of the Australian innings. Smith came down the track to negate the turn from the left-arm spinner and was successful. Axar completed another maiden over. It was during the change of ends when Kohli, who was standing at the first slip, put his arms around Smith and had a light chat. The two legends of the game were all smiles.
Here is the video of the incident:
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Notably, this is not the first time Virat Kohli and Smith shared a light moment on the field. The then-Indian skipper famously stood up for the Australian batter during the 2019 ODI World Cup when the crowd was booing him in India vs Australia group-stage match.
Coming back to Nagpur Test, the smiles from the Australian camp, however, vanished quickly in the post-Lunch session. Smith and Labuschagne took Australia to 76 for 2 at Lunch on Day 1. But things changed rapidly in the second session courtesy of Ravindra Jadeja. Playing his first international match in five months, Jadeja removed Labuschagne (49), Matt Renshaw (0), and Smith (37) in quick succession to leave Australia reeling.
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Peter Handscomb and Alex Carey then stitched together a counter-attacking half-century partnership which was broken by Ravichandran Ashwin. Jadeja got debutant Todd Murphy as Australia was left in all sorts of trouble. They got bundled out for 177 after the Tea break on Day 1.
