Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23: India Win 2-1 — Ashwin and Jadeja Joint Player of the Series, Rohit Sharma Captain, Cummins Debut Series

India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23 in India by 2-1. The 4-Test series: Nagpur (India won by innings and 132 runs), New Delhi (India won by 6 wickets), Indore (Australia won by 9 wickets), Ahmedabad (Draw). Ravichandran Ashwin took 25 wickets across the series; he and Ravindra Jadeja were named joint Player of the Series. Rohit Sharma captained India; Pat Cummins captained Australia (Steve Smith captained the Indore Test after Cummins left for personal reasons). India's 2-1 win confirmed their place in the 2023 ICC World Test Championship Final.

Ashwin 25 Wickets and Jadeja: Joint Player of the Series in a Spin-Dominant Home Series

Ravichandran Ashwin taking 25 wickets across the four Tests — the most of any bowler in the 2022-23 BGT — and sharing the Player of the Series award with Ravindra Jadeja gave India's 2023 series win its defining bowling combination: the same off-spinner and left-arm spinner who had together taken 500+ Test wickets for India between them, dominating Australia's batting across the subcontinent conditions of Nagpur, Delhi, Indore, and Ahmedabad. Ashwin's 25 wickets — including match-winning spells at Nagpur and Delhi — restricted Australia's batting line-up (Warner, Khawaja, Labuschagne, Smith, Head) repeatedly across surfaces turning sharply. Jadeja's lower-order batting and left-arm spin complemented Ashwin's off-break attack, the joint award reflecting how seldom the series produced a single dominant bowler that overshadowed both: two bowlers sharing wickets across all four Tests equally enough that the ICC named both rather than choosing one. The Nagpur first Test — India winning by an innings and 132 runs — set the tone: Australia's batting, arriving without significant spin-training preparation on red soil, collapsed twice across conditions that Ashwin and Jadeja had grown their careers in.

Indore Reversal and Ahmedabad Draw: How Australia Won One Test and Held Another

Australia winning the Indore third Test by 9 wickets — the series' most emphatic result after two India wins — came after Steve Smith captained Australia in Pat Cummins' absence (Cummins flew home for personal reasons) and India were bowled out for 109 and 163, the Holkar Stadium pitch drawing ICC inspection and a 'poor' rating. Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy bowled Australia to their only win of the series. The Ahmedabad fourth Test — a draw at the Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest cricket ground — gave Australia a series-saving final result without changing the 2-1 outcome India had secured across the first three Tests. Pat Cummins, in his first series as Australia's Test captain against India — one of Test cricket's most demanding assignments for any visiting captain — captained Australia through the Nagpur loss, Delhi loss, and Ahmedabad draw, while Smith managed the Indore win, the combined captaincy giving the 2022-23 series its unusual narrative of two Australia captains in a four-Test sequence.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23 in Context

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23 — India in India, February-March 2023 — continued India's dominance in home BGT series since their 2004-05 cycle. India's 2-1 win — Ashwin 25 wickets joint PoS with Jadeja, Rohit Sharma captain, Cummins/Smith for Australia, Nagpur and Delhi wins offset by Indore loss and Ahmedabad draw — sent India to the WTC Final while Australia, despite winning Indore convincingly, could not convert their spin-bowling quality (Lyon 15+ wickets) into a series win in turning Indian conditions. The 2022-23 BGT also set up the 2024-25 BGT in Australia — where Australia reversed the result with a 3-1 win — giving the ongoing Border-Gavaskar rivalry between the two sides its most recent back-and-forth exchange of series results.