Harbhajan Singh, the ex-Indian bowler, predicted that the initial Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 between India and Australia would be finished in three days. India took control of the game on a spinning wicket at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur after Australia decided to bat first on Thursday, February 9.
The Indian fast bowlers were unexpectedly successful in getting rid of the Australian batsmen during the initial three overs, despite the visitors being thoroughly ready for the spin attack. Steve Smith (37) and Marnus Labuschagne (49) had put together an 82-run partnership which was progressing smoothly until Ravindra Jadeja broke the deadlock.
The all-rounder caused disruption to the middle-order lineup of Australia, which was made up of Labuschagne, Smith, Matt Renshaw, and Peter Handscomb. Along the way, he also got rid of debutant Todd Murphy, earning his 11th Test fifer. In the end, Australia ended up with a low score of 177 in 63.5 overs.
Harbhajan mentioned on his YouTube channel that he did not believe the spin factor was pivotal in Australia’s batting collapse during the second session of the day; rather, some players got out due to bad shots, and others were intimidated by the pre-match conversation.
India ended the day with 77 runs on the scoreboard, and their captain Rohit Sharma was still on the pitch with an unbeaten score of 56, while Ravichandran Ashwin remained not out with 0.
Harbhajan Singh expressed that if India can post a score of more than 300, they can win the match in three days. He stated that if the following day goes India’s way, then the third day should also be successful for them.
The experienced off-spin bowler Ravichandran Ashwin achieved another remarkable feat in Test cricket. He captured the wickets of Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, and Scott Boland and finished with a score of 3/42 from 15.5 overs.
Ashwin managed to take 450 wickets in 89 Test matches, making him the second-fastest bowler to reach the milestone, with only Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan being faster than him in 80 matches. While he was doing this, he was cleaning up Carey as the latter was trying to hit his distinctive reverse-sweep shot.
Harbhajan Singh congratulated R Ashwin on his 450 wickets and expressed his hope that Ashwin and Jadeja would continue to be successful in helping India win matches.