3 reasons why India won the first test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023

India started the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in an empathic fashion by beating bitter rivals Australia by an inning and 132 runs in the first test at Nagpur.

India dominated the proceedings from the word go and outclassed the Aussies in all departments. Australia, the No.1 Test team in the world, looked a shadow of themselves and were no match for India's spin bowling prowess. Multiple factors contributed to India's victory. Here are three reasons why India won their first Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.

#1 Rohit Sharma's Leadership

Nagpur's pitch was a tricky wicket to bat on. The ball did not come onto the bat nicely and kept low on many occasions. While the other batters struggled to score runs, Rohit Sharma batted brilliantly and scored a superb knock of 120 off 212 balls.

Rohit scored runs quickly on Day 1 and anchored the Indian Innings on Day 2. His excellent batting display was instrumental to India's victory. Rohit made the right bowling changes and his DRS calls were spot-on. Rohit marshaled his troops like a true leader and his leadership was one of the principal reasons for India's victory.

#2 Ashwin and Jadeja's spin wizardry

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are currently the best spin-bowling duo in test cricket. Jadeja rattled the Australian middle-order in the first innings and picked up 5 wickets.

Ashwin, on the other hand, picked up five wickets in the second innings and was causing nightmares for the Australian batters. Ashwin and Jadeja have picked up 389 wickets in the last 37 matches that they have played together in India.

Despite the Australians practicing hard on spin bowling, they had absolutely no answers to the terrific spin bowling of Ashwin and Jadeja.

#3 Contribution of lower-order batters

The Indian middle batters had an outing to forget in this test match. Pujara, Kohli, and Surya Kumar Yadav only contributed a total of 27 runs to India's mammoth total of 400.

Significant contributions to India's total came for the lower-order batters. Jadeja, Axar Patel and Shami contributed a total of 191 runs to India's total.

The 88-run partnership between Jadeja and Axar and the 52-run partnership between Axar and Shami helped India amass a massive lead of 223 runs. The batting performance of the Indian lower-order batters was one of the reasons for India's thumping victory against Australia.

Australia have been humbled in the first test at Nagpur and have their backs against the wall. They will be looking to make a comeback in the second Test match, which starts on 17 February in Delhi. India have not lost a test series at home since 2012-13 and will be looking to take a 2-0 lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in the next match.