Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma hit his ninth Test ton on Friday on the second day of the first Test against Australia in Nagpur. It took Rohit 171 balls to reach his hundred. On a slow track where other batters found run-scoring extremely difficult, the India skipper (120) was concentration personified on way to one of his best Test centuries. The century effort had the same class as the 161 he scored in Chennai in 2021, with the opener putting his best food forward against the bowlers led by spinners Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy.

On Day 1, Australia batter Peter Handscomb had said that pitch was 'playing tricks'. "It definitely wasn't easy out there. It's tough because when the pitch is playing tricks that starts to play with your mind a little bit as well," Handscomb said at the press conference after the opening day's play.

“The ball that doesn't do as much you expect to do a little bit more and that's where you can come undone with the ball that goes straight on, rather than the big turners we saw out there as well.”

However, Rohit's batting showed that pitch had no such demons. The innings also prompted former India opener Wasim Jaffer to take a jibe on Australia.

"Everyone thought pitch was spitting cobras but as always, Rohit made it look like a belt-er. Batted @ImRo45 #INDvAUS #BGT2023," Jaffer wrote in a tweet.

With PTI inputs