Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne was enjoying his time out in the middle on Day 1 of the ongoing first Test against India in Nagpur. Labuschagne, however, fell short of his half-century by one run as he was stumped on 49 by debutant KS Bharat off Ravindra Jadeja's delivery. Labuschagne was involved in a hilarious exchange with India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. In the first session, Ashwin made a gesture of the bowl spinning and turning away from the batter.
While Ashwin's gesture was directed towards the keeper, Labuschagne replicated the same from the batting end. The incident has gone viral on social media.
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Labuschagne had come out to bat after Mohammed Siraj had dismissed Usman Khawaja (1) in the second over.
Earlier, Labuschagne and Steve Smith fought back as Australia recovered from losing their openers to reach 76-2 at lunch.
Labuschagne (47) and Smith (19) attempted to rebuild in an unbeaten stand of 74 after the early dismissals of Usman Khawaja and David Warner on a Nagpur pitch expected to turn viciously.
However, Jadeja struck twice in as many deliveries and left Australia rattled.
Siraj struck on his first ball to get Khawaja trapped lbw for one with a delivery that swung in to the left-hander, after the tourists won the toss and elected to bat first.
An appeal was turned down by the on-field umpire but India successfully reviewed the decision, much to the delight of coach Rahul Dravid, who pumped his fists in the pavilion.
Mohammed Shami soon raised the noise in the next over when the seamer bowled the left-handed Warner for one, coming around the wicket to send the off-stump cartwheeling.
(With AFP Inputs)
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