Ind vs Aus, 4th Test: Ind Pull Things Back With 2 Scalps After Aus’ Steady Start

India vs Australia, 4th Test: Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami were among wickets for India.

India vs Australia, 4th Test: India scalped a couple of wickets in the first session of the fourth Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test.

(Photo: BCCI)

Australia lost a couple of crucial wickets in the first session of the fourth Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test, but they will be fairly content with their performance in the first session here at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. At lunch on Day 1, the baggy greens are 75/2.

With the Ahmedabad track not being as conducive to the bowlers as the ones at Indore, Delhi and Kanpur were, the Australian opening pair of Usman Khawaja and Travis Head managed to sail through the first hour fairly comfortably.

The first five overs yielded 17 runs, albeit Head was awarded a reprieve in the next over. The left-handed batter edged a Umesh Yadav delivery straight into the gloves of wicket-keeper KS Bharat, but the latter could not hold on to the cherry.

The next few overs saw Head and Khawaja freeing the shackles and scoring the odd boundary at regular intervals, taking all but 13 overs to bring up 50 runs for the baggy greens. The breakthrough, however, eventually arrived in the 16th over of the match.

Dancing down the track with the ambition of hitting what could have been his eighth boundary, Head could not time a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery and ended up miscuing it straight into the safe palms of Ravindra Jadeja at mid-on.

India vs Australia, 4th Test: Ravichandran Ashwin provided the hosts with their first breakthrough.

(Photo: BCCI)

Mohammed Shami Sends Marnus Labuschagne Packing

Marnus Labuschagne had a cautious start to his knock, but he could not have a prolonged stint in the middle, with Mohammed Shami bringing his downfall in the 23rd over. Batting at 3 runs, Labuschagne dragged an outside-off delivery onto the stumps to provide the hosts with their second wicket.

That, however, was the last notable incident from the first session. Steve Smith is currently unbeaten on 2 runs off 17 deliveries, whilst Khawaja is looking in good nick, having accumulated 27 runs from 88 deliveries.