India thrashed Australia by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test, took a 1-0 lead in the series

 

Spinners Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and skipper Rohit Sharma starred as India thrashed the visitors by an innings and 132 runs to win the first Test against Australia in Nagpur.

India beat Australia by an innings and 132 runs in the first Test at Nagpur to take the lead in the 4-match series. The Rohit Sharma-led side is now one step ahead of reaching the final of the World Test Championship.

India managed to take a healthy 223-run lead in the first innings and restrict the Kangaroos to a total of 91 in the second innings, with a half-century from Ravichandran Ashwin and contributions from Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami and Akshar Patel.

Bowling first, India bundled out Australia for 177 thanks to some brilliant performances from all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and spin maestro Ravichandran Ashwin. Returning after his knee injury, Jadeja managed to take five wickets for just 47 runs in the process, while Ashwin also took three wickets for 42 runs.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma, who came out to bat in the second innings, stood firm from one end while wickets kept falling from the other end. He managed to score 120 off 212 balls with 15 fours and 2 sixes and ensured that India were comfortably above the Australian score of 177.

Jadeja's dream comeback with the bat continued, scoring a crucial 70 and taking the team to a respectable score of 400 along with fellow spin bowler all-rounder Akshar Patel. Patel played a crucial innings of 84 runs but fell short of his century after being bowled by Pat Cummins for 16 runs.

Ravindra Jadeja was adjudged man of the match for his all-round performance taking 7 wickets and scoring 70 runs.

Talking about his consistency with the bat at the post-match presentation, Ravindra Jadeja said, "Generally I try to keep things very simple, I try not to vary much in my batting. I've always wanted to keep things simple. I focus more on my batting now because that's the important number of 567."

The second Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy will be played in Delhi from February 17 to 21.