Usman Khawaja. (Photo Source: BCCI)
Usman Khawaja’s brilliant unbeaten century, his 14th in Test cricket, and Cameron Green’s aggressive knock of 49* off just 64 which included eight fours, put Australia in a great position on Day 1 of the fourth and final Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which took place at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Pakistan-born Khawaja remained not out on 104 off 251 with the help of 15 fours as the Australians posted 255 for the loss of four wickets in 90 overs.
Speaking about how the opening day panned out, stand-in skipper Steven Smith won the toss and opted to bat first. The Prime Ministers from both countries, Narendra Modi (India) and Anthony Albanese (Australia) were in attendance as they also took a lap of honour at the iconic stadium to celebrate 75 years of friendship between the two nations. Coming back to the match, Travis Head scored a quickfire 32 off 44 before getting dismissed to R Ashwin.
Marnus Labuschagne managed to score only three while captain Smith’s struggle against Ravindra Jadeja continued as the spinner got rid of him for the seventh time in Test cricket. Smith made 38 while Peter Handscomb amassed 17 before his stump went cartwheeling off Mohammed Shami’s delivery. But at the end of the day, Khawaja and Green added 85 runs for the fifth wicket to make it the visitors’ day.
Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from Day 1 of the 4th Test between India and Australia:
2015 – Usman Khawaja became the first Australian opener to smash a century against India in Tests since 2015. David Warner was the last one to do so in Sydney in January of that year.
15 – Khawaja struck his first Test hundred against India in 15 innings. He has scored 455 runs at an average of 35.00 with three half-centuries.
6 – For the first time, Steven Smith has gone six successive innings without a half-century in Test cricket.
7 – Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Steven Smith for the seventh time in Test cricket, which is the joint second with Moeen Ali, Alastair Cook, and Pat Cummins. The spinner has got rid of Angelo Mathews most number of times (eight) in Tests.
4 – Khawaja now shares the top position with Matthew Hayden for most Test tons (four) by an Australia opener in Asia.
6 – Left-handed batter Khawaja has now smashed the most centuries (six) for the Kangaroos in the current 2021-23 World Test Championship (WTC) cycle. He surpassed Marnus Labuschagne’s tally of five tons.
50 – Virat Kohli appeared in his 50th Test match in India.
2 – Khawaja became only the second player to bat out an entire day against India in India since the year 2013. Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal did so in Delhi (Day 3) in 2017.
6 – Khawaja is now tied with Jonny Bairstow in the second spot for the most tons (six) in WTC 2021-23. Joe Root tops the chart with eight hundreds.
1 – The left-handed opener Khawaja also became the first Aussie to hit a ton in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.