The much-awaited Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 between India and Australia begins at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday, February 9. It will be the final series for both teams in the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, which will decide the top two teams for the final to be held on June 8 at the Oval in England.
Australia won the toss and chose to bat. The Pat Cummins-led team made two changes to their line-up, replacing Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood with Peter Handscomb and debutant spinner Todd Murphy. Suryakumar Yadav and wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat made their debuts for Team India, while star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja returned to the playing XI after recovering from injury.
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During the 16th over of Australia’s innings, Virat Kohli dropped the catch given by Steve Smith off the bowling of Axar Patel. Smith played for the drive, but it took a thick outside edge and went quickly to the right side of Virat. The former India skipper, who was stationed at the first slip, reacted late. India would have taken Smith’s wicket had Virat managed to take the catch.
IND vs AUS: Watch- Virat Kohli Drops Steve Smith Catching A Sitter In The First Session Of The Day 1 In The First Test
Virat Kohli dropped catch of Smith#ViratKohli #SteveSmith pic.twitter.com/PCIh2SGbzk
— Nitin Varshney (@NitinVa90573455) February 9, 2023
Steve Smith enjoys batting in India, scoring 660 runs in six Test matches at an average of 60, including three centuries and a half-century. The right-handed batsman was the highest run-scorer on their previous tour with 499 runs at an average of 71.29. Overall, Smith has an incredible record against India in the longer format, scoring 1742 runs from 14 matches with an average of 72.58.
Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
Virat Kohli | Rohit Sharma | Rishabh Pant | KL Rahul | Suryakumar Yadav | Sanju Samson | Shreyas Iyer | Yuzvendra Chahal | Jasprit Bumrah
