IND vs AUS Day 1 1st session highlights: Batting masterclass from Labuschagne, Smith after jolty Aussie start

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With the Nagpur pitch in focus, Australia captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first with no doubt in his mind. Travis Head was left out as Peter Handscomb was included in the Australia eleven. The visitors also handed Off-spinner Todd Murphy his debut cap. The Indian camp left out in-form Shubman Gill for KL Rahul and gave debut caps to Suryakumar Yadav and wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat.

However, pacer Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj soon took the centre stage and reduced Australia to 2/2. Siraj trapped Usman Khawaja in front of the stumps before Shami rattled David Warner's off-stump in some style. The visitors were in tremendous pressure when Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne took things under their control.

An opportunity to send Smith packing was there on the first ball of the 16th over, however, Virat Kohli dropped a catch in the slip cordon. The star capitalised and remained successfully unbeaten in the first session which saw him score 19 runs off 76 balls. Labuschagne looked the more fluent batter and he accumulated 47 runs including as many as eight boundaries off 110 balls at the time of lunch. India used all their three spinners but failed to break the partnership.

Fans and expert have praised Smith and Labuschagne for their very graceful and gutsy batting against India on a surface not very easy to bat. The home side will have the task of breaking the partnership and bounce back in the second session. For Australia, it will be an opportunity to capiatlise on the momentum and end the first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23 on a high.