On Friday, February 17th, the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi will host the second match of the four-match series between India and Australia. Having won the first match by a massive margin of an innings and 132 runs, Team India has taken an unassailable 1-0 lead in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023. With hopes of qualifying for the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final, the Rohit Sharma-led team must secure victory in this crucial second match.
In the second match, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. The side led by Pat Cummins made two changes to their line-up, bringing in Travis Head and Matthew Kuhnemann in place of Matt Renshaw and Scott Boland. Meanwhile, India made a solitary change to their playing XI, with Shreyas Iyer returning to the side after recovering from a back injury to replace Suryakumar Yadav, who had made his Test debut in the previous match.
During the 29th over of Australia’s first innings, a comical incident occurred. Virat Kohli gave instructions to bowler Ravichandran Ashwin about the batsman in Hindi, but Usman Khawaja was able to understand the language, causing the fielders to burst into laughter.
Australia made a strong start to their innings with openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja putting together a 50-run partnership. However, pacer Mohammed Shami provided the first breakthrough for the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team as he dismissed Warner for 15 runs. Warner had appeared unsettled from the outset of his innings against the Indian bowlers.
Just before the lunch break, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took the wickets of two of the Australians’ top batsmen, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, in a span of three balls. The Australian vice-captain, who had looked steady in the first match, was dismissed for a duck as he edged the ball into the gloves of wicketkeeper KS Bharat.
