Rohit Sharma batted like a beauty not showing any rust of playing a Test for the first time since March 2022 as India moved towards a huge advantage on day one of the first Test against Australia which is being played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur.

Pat Cummins, the Australian captain won the toss and chose to bat first in the opening Test of the highly anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series, but his decision to do so didn’t come to fruition as he would have liked.

After the Indian pacers, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj removed the openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja for one run each respectively, Indian spinners got to work.

This was despite an 82-run partnership between Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steve Smith (37) for the third wicket. But Ravindra Jadeja dismissed both the batters in quick succession, including Matt Renshaw, who was out for a golden duck, with his wicket being sandwiched in between those two wickets.

Then Peter Handscomb (31) and Alex Carey (36) added 53 runs as well, but Australia could only manage 177 runs. For India, Ravindra Jadeja ran riot with 5/47, while Ravichandran Ashwin picked three wickets and in the process, completed 450 wickets in Test cricket as well.

Rohit Sharma Gives India A Golden Start, While KL Rahul’s Struggles Continued

Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul came out to open the innings and captain Rohit Started by hitting Pat Cummins for three fours in the first over of the innings.  While Rohit seemed to be in a golden touch, KL Rahul, on the other end, was nervy and unsure about scoring runs or surviving out there.

Rahul barely managed to score runs, while Rohit Sharma began hammering the bowlers, not sparing any loose ball as he made 56* in 69 balls with 9 fours and one six to his name. He looked totally in form despite missing 8 of India’s last 10 Test matches due to fitness and injury.

Meanwhile Rahul was caught and bowled for 20 runs by debutant Todd Murphy as India finished day on 77/1.

Twitterverse was all praises for Rohit Sharma and showed their love on the social media site.

Here are the tweets:

The numbers of Rohit Sharma in home conditions is only behind Bradman. pic.twitter.com/XI67O09rlW

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) February 9, 2023

BRILLIANT BRILLIANT BRILLIANT 50*
The best Rohit Sharma has batted across formats in the last 2 years 👏
Maza aa Gaya 🇮🇳🧿#RohitSharma #IndvsAus @ImRo45

— Sushant Mehta (@SushantNMehta) February 9, 2023

A steady start for India with skipper Rohit Sharma leading the charge.#WTC23 | #INDvAUS | 📝 https://t.co/rzMJy0hUFm pic.twitter.com/PjHNmLDym7

— ICC (@ICC) February 9, 2023

66 ball 51!

Rohit Sharma leading from the front with the bat. Ideal, day almost. Top start for him and India.

— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) February 9, 2023

Pehla din Bharat ke naam. #INDvsAUS

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 9, 2023

That’s as brilliant a half century as you can hope to see #RohitSharma

— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) February 9, 2023

Also Read: IND vs AUS: “We Just Go Out And Play The Game And Try And Do The Best For Our Team,” Steve Smith On His Rivalry With Virat Kohli