Ton up Khawaja put Australia in a good position after Day 1 of Ahmedabad test | INDvsAUS

Xtra Time Web Desk: A brilliant hundred (101* off 255 balls) from Usman Khawaja helped Australia end Day 1 of the fourth test at Ahmedabad in a strong position. All-rounder Cameron Green also blazed 49 off just 64 balls to see Australia end Day 1 at 4-255.

Khawaja flicked Mohammad Shami for his 15th boundary off his 246th ball faced, immediately raising his fist in triumph to acknowledge becoming just the third Australian to score a Test hundred in India in the past decade.

All the Australian batters, Travis Head (32), Steve Smith (38) and Peter Handscomb (17) got a start but no one could capitalise it.

KS Bharat had a nightmare start to the Test. More than half of Australia’s first 15 runs were byes as he struggled with the ball deviating after passing the batter, before then putting down a straightforward catch off a Head edge.

Head lived a charmed life, with numerous plays and misses punctuating a sequence of crisp boundaries for the makeshift opener, before his luck ran out when he smeared an Ashwin delivery straight to mid-on.

Australia’s stand in captain Steve Smith edged Jadeja onto his pad and then the stumps, having hit just three boundaries from 135 balls and weathered a spell of just three runs from nine overs leading into the lunch break.

Shami, was the pick of Indian bowlers taking the wickets of Labuschagne and Handscomb in his first spell.

Hansdcomb arrived at the crease in the middle of a hostile Umesh Yadav bouncer barrage, but appeared equal to the task as he ignored the three fielders set in a leg-side trap and bisected them with consecutive pulled boundaries off what turned out to be the final two balls of his spell.