India vs Australia: Talking points from hosts' emphatic win in first Test

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Team India started their 2023 Test season on a high as they thrashed Australia by innings and 132 runs in the Nagpur Test within three days to take 1-0 lead in the four-match series. The win also helped India make gains in the World Test Championships points table as their point percentile increased to 61.67 per cent.

Table-toppers Australia, at the same time, dropped from 75.55% to 70.83% but the morale-sapping defeat of an innings was a prolongation of the historic 2020-21 Test series that ended in Perth.

India vs Australia: Indian lower-order continues to frustrate Oz bowlers

One could sense the familiarity in the way Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and even Mohammed Shami batted down the order across the Day 2 and 3 of the Nagpur Test. It was a reminiscence of the Sydney fightback by R Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari, which was later entrenched as the image of this young Indian team that defeated Australian in their own game in Perth soon after with Rishabh Pant starring.

On Day 2, however, Australia, with their new leadership in Pat Cummins, must have fancied their chances when Rohit Sharma and KS Bharat departed in quick succession. With India yet to touch the psychological mark of a 100-run lead and their debutant Todd Murphy turning a true surprise package, Australians must have thought the match is not beyond their control.

However, Patel (84) and Jadeja (70) batted throughout the last session of Day 3 while their feet movement was exemplary on a rank turner with Australia certainly missing a third spinner in their line-up as Murphy suddenly rendered ineffective and inexperienced against the left-handers.

India vs Australia: Too much being read into the pitch

The 88-run stand between the duo also mocked the earlier claims of Australian media, who criticised Nagpur curators for purposely leaving patches on the left-side of the pitches dry for a southpaw-heavy Australian batting.This left David Warner and Usman Khawaja with next to no excuse to hide behind as the two left-handed batters cut a sorry figure across two innings with a sum of 17 runs together.

In fact, if some of the experts, especially from from the other part of the world, are to be believed, scoring 250 on VCA stadium's surface seemed impossible. Australia's 177 all out further gave fire to such claim until Rohit Sharma's masterclass of an innings on Day 2 nipped it in the bud.

And by the time, No. 9 Shami scored a quickfire 47-ball 37 on the third morning, any excuse around the pitch were laid to rest.

India vs Australia: India backed their strength

However, there is no denying that India took home advantage, and quite fairly, prepared a pitch to their strength. India's two bowling star of the match, Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin picked a match-haul of seven and eight wickets each to expose Australian batting fallacies.

While Indian spinners took 16 of the 20 wickets, Australian bowling was largely dependent on a debutant spinner. An experienced Nathan Lyon, on the other hand, could only show 1 wicket in his 49 overs for 126 runs. Lyon's no-show was hardly a surprise as the 35-year-old off spinner was lacklusture in the last Border-Gavaskar series too with just nine wickets to his name. In Nagpur, he was particularly bothered by Rohit, who never allowed the right-arm orthodox to settle.

India vs Australia: Rohit Sharma shushes doubters

Leading into the game, the Indian captain was quite annoyed when he was reminded that he hasn't scored a Test century in more than a year. In his defence, the question seemed quite unfair as he hardly played Test matches since England tour.

His 212-ball 120 was a reminder that the 35-year-old opener is quite serious about his Test ambitions as he became the first Indian captain to score a century in all formats of the game. That effectively means he has done something that modern-day greats like Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni haven't achieved despite years in charge of the team.

Of course, one still gets to say that playing as an opener made that possible but one still got to score those runs and Sharma did so when a certain quarter suggested that the Nagpur pitch is unplayable.