The opening day of the first Test match between India and Australia for the Border Gavaskar Trophy was completely controlled by India. After being dominated by the Indian bowling assault, particularly the spinners, the Australians were only able to score 177 runs in their first innings.
Australia’s leading run scorer was Marnus Labuschagne, who tallied 49 (123). After day one was through, the 28-year-old came up and spoke about his joking around with Virat Kohli. Labuschagne missed a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja in the first ball of the sixth over, and Kohli said that he might have shouldered his arms to the delivery.
At a later time, the Australian batter smashed a four with a cover drive, earning him compliments from Kohli. Labuschagne, during an interview with Sen Cricket, made similar remarks:
“Yeah, it’s always nice when Virat thinks you have played a decent shot there. There are a few shots I definitely learned from him.”
Australia was in a precarious position at the end of the first day. At the close of play on day one, India was down by 100 runs with nine wickets remaining. KL Rahul got out for just 20 runs, giving the Australians a much-needed breakthrough thanks to 22-year-old Todd Murphy. According to Labuschagne, the Australians need a miraculous batting effort if they want to win the match.
“We are here to win the series, so we are going to make sure that we work as hard as we possibly can and fight our way back into the match by putting up a special performance with the bat,” Labuschagne added.
The 28-year-old was also quite impressed by the first-day efforts of the rookie, Todd Murphy. Like many others, Labuschagne thinks Murphy has the right attitude and talent to make it big.
