Watch: R Ashwin and Marnus Labuschagne engage in hilarious gestural conversation during Day 1 of IND VS AUS first Test

Ravichandran Ashwin, Marnus Labuschagne (Source: Twitter)

The day the entire cricketing fraternity was desperately waiting for finally arrived on Thursday as India and Australia locked horns in the first Test of the four-match series in Nagpur. Ahead of the first Test, Australia were seen preparing to face India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. They took the services of first-class cricketer Mahesh Pithiya, who has a similar action to Ashwin, to help them get a glimpse of the challenges the off-spinner will throw at them.

On Day 1 of the first Test, star Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne was seen engaging in a fun gestural conversation with Ashwin which was caught on camera. In the viral video, Ashwin was doing the spinning gesture to suggest he can even bring the ball back into the right-hander from around the wicket. Labuschagne seemed to agree with Ashwin as he smilingly nodded repeating the same gestures.

Watch the video here:

Ash anna🥶🔥#BGT23 #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/ZQgJCFbRNJ

— Ankita♡ (@__elysian__14) February 9, 2023

Coming back to the match, Australian captain Pat Cummins called it correctly at the toss and elected to bat first. The Indian seam duo of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj gave the perfect start to their side as they got rid of the openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja. Siraj dismissed Khawaja on his very first ball as he trapped in front of the stumps while Shami cleaned up Warner on the first ball of his second over.

Ravindra Jadeja brought India back into the match

Seeing their team in trouble, star batters Labuschagne and Steve Smith added 82 runs for the third wicket and took the innings forward. With the partnership looking threatening, captain Rohit Sharma brought back Ravindra Jadeja into the attack who ended up picking two wickets in one over.

He first dismissed dangerous Labuschagne on 49 and Matt Renshaw for a golden duck. The left-arm spinner further picked the ‘all-important’ scalp of Steve Smith on 37 to leave Australia at 109/5 after 42 overs.

The series holds tremendous importance for India as it will not only help them seal a berth in World Test Championship final but also help them rise to no one in the Test team rankings if they manage to beat Australia with a margin of two Tests.