IND vs AUS Day 2 Highlights: Rohit Sharma's Maiden Test Ton As Captain, Ravindra Jadeja-Axar Patel's Stand Takes India To Commanding Position

IND vs AUS: Ravindra Jadeja's unbroken 81-run stand for the 8th wicket along with Axar Patel helped India regain complete control of the match and end the Day with a 144-run lead

India's Ravindra Jadeja (R) with teammate Axar Patel run between the wickets during the second day of the first Test cricket match between India and Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Nagpur on February 10, 2023.

Source : AFP

Nagpur: Ravindra Jadeja's dream comeback to international cricket after a long injury layoff continued as after his five-wicket haul in the first innings marred by ball-tampering allegations on social media, the southpaw scored a superb unbeatean half-century (66*) at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Friday. His unbroken 81-run stand for the 8th wicket along with Axar Patel helped India regain complete control of the match and end the Day with a 144-run lead after the Australians were in with a chance to make a match out of it, having first reduced India to 168/5 and later to 240/7. India's score at stumps on Day 2 read 321/7.

Axar too brought about his second half-century (52*) in Test match cricket in the final session on Day 2 to justify his selection in the side after he failed to scalp a wicket with the ball on Day 1. Their partnership though came after Rohit Sharma's sublime hundred  (120) which he scored despite wickets falling around him. The right-handed batter got to his maiden Test match hundred as a captain in this format and became only the fourth captain to score centuries in all three formats after Tillakaratne Dilshan, Faf du Plessis and Babar Azam. He became the first Indian captain to achieve the feat.

It's Stumps on Day 2 of the first #INDvAUS Test! #TeamIndia move to 321/7 & lead Australia by 144 runs. 👏 👏

1⃣2⃣0⃣ for captain @ImRo45
6⃣6⃣* for @imjadeja
5⃣2⃣* for @akshar2026

We will be back for Day 3 action tomorrow.

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/SwTGoyHfZx pic.twitter.com/1lNIJiWuwX

— BCCI (@BCCI) February 10, 2023

For Australia, debutant Todd Murphy continued his impressive form from the opening day and registered a five-wicket haul, getting the wickets of R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Kona Srikar Bharat. Veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon cleaned up Suryakumar Yadav while the Australian skipper Pat Cummins clean bowled Rohit with the second new ball in the only Indian wicket that has fallen to pace so far.

While Australia did have their chances on the day but India's highest partnership of the innings has been stitched by their 8th wicket duo of Jadeja and Patel which would have been demoralising for the Kangaroos who were bowled out for 177 runs in their first innings and have already conceded a lead of close to 150. Earlier on Day 1, Jadeja's 5/47 and Ashwin's 3/42 helped India bowl out the oppostion for under 200 before Rohit took on the attack to the opposition and reduced the deficit to just 100 by the end of the day's play with KL Rahul being the only Indian wicket to fall.