During his first time commentating for the broadcaster of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, Indian wicketkeeper-turned-commentator Dinesh Karthik had an entertaining conversation with former Australian batsman Mark Waugh.
The home team kept Australia to a score of 177 after they lost the toss. When India scored 50 runs without losing any wickets, Dinesh Karthik jokingly said to Mark Waugh on air that Australia could possibly lose the match by innings in Nagpur.
DK stated that he was confident India would only bat once in this Test match, and he wanted his words to be remembered.
Mark Waugh was not pleased with Dinesh Karthik’s statement, believing it too early in the match to make such a confident forecast. He replied, “We’ll just have to wait and see, DK. It’s only three-five. I’ll remember that. He may be right. It won’t be a walk in the park, that’s for sure.” Dinesh Karthik continued the conversation, saying, “But it won’t be as hard as the Australians made it out to be either.”
Waugh was quite competitive in his comments, reminding Karthik that the Australian side had two excellent batters in Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, who had an average of 60 in Tests. He said: “I’m just saying don’t judge the pitch until both teams have batted. We shall see what happens. This is an important session, and Australia won’t give India any leeway. The Indian Test batters are not as good as the Aussies. I don’t think two people averaging 60 is possible”.
DK was very direct as he reminded Waugh that besides Steve Smith, none of the Australian batters from the current squad had achieved success in India. He answered that there was only one in India that averaged 60.
Ravi Shastri, the former India coach, was also in the commentary box. He was a person who always felt that one should reciprocate the respect opponents deserve, and the same was followed by Team India during his coaching days. Mark Waugh predicted that Australia would defeat India 4-0 in the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy following their collapse for 36 runs. Yet, what happened next silenced all the sceptics, including Waugh. Shastri remarked to DK, “Mark, I recall when we had scored only 36 runs in Adelaide, Australia, you predicted that India would lose the series 4-0. Let’s see what your prediction is now!”
India finished the first day of play with a solid score of 77/1, being only 100 runs behind the opposing team’s first-inning score.