The Nagpur groundsmen have come under the spotlight in recent days after the alleged doctoring of the pitch aimed at providing India with a competitive advantage.
Somewhat ironically hitting back at these rumours, former Australian captain Ian Chappell was impressed with the Nagpur pitch, declaring it "was far from being a bad pitch."
"All the malarkey that was written about the Nagpur pitch in the lead-up to the game was exactly that, malarkey," Chappell toldย ESPN.
These statements come in the wake of Australia being cheaply bowled out for 177 runs in the first innings.
However, Chappell claims that if batsmen were "sensible," batting was "possible."
Exemplifying this, Australia's best batters were able to put up reasonable scores whilst Indian captain Rohit Sharma was able to make a half-century and is still yet to be dismissed.
Meanwhile, Australia's openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja were dismissed very cheaply from relatively straightforward deliveries.
In saying that, the South Australian conceded that there is a fair amount of turn on offer for spinners.
This was corroborated by how spinners have taken 9 of the 11 wickets so far in the match.
As the game progresses, there is likely to be more and more spin accounting for more wickets.
However, this is not necessarily anything new for Indian pitches which almost always have great turn in the pitch for spinners to utilise.
As the series progresses, the two spinners for both countries will probably be the most pivotal players in the series.
So far in India's first innings, debutant Todd Murphy has picked up Australia's only wicket.
Meanwhile, Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up three and five wickets respectively in a fantastic bowling display.
With the edge that India currently have in the match, Australia will have their work cut out.
The last time these two sides met in a Test Series, India got the chocolates after a thrilling match at the Gabba.
They will be hoping to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the fifth year running.
