The Indian cricket team will be kicking off its month-long series against West Indies on Thursday with the start of the first Test series, offering India a chance to build on its successful visit to Zimbabwe and the introduction of some new players to the global circuit.
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Virat Kohli scored his 12th Test century to guide India to a strong position at the end of first day’s play.
Kohli chose to bat after winning the toss despite the prospect of early life in the pitch, and Shannon Gabriel in particular troubled the India batsmen.
Meanwhile, West Indies will be playing their first five-day series since losing 2-0 to Australia in December and January.
Kohli, on the other hand, came out full of intent. Its last win came against the West Indies in 2011, but even replicating the 1-0 margin of victory from five years ago will be somewhat underwhelming given the talent differential that now appears to exist between the teams in the Test arena.
India were expected to look for runs, and relatively quick runs, while West Indies were expected to frustrate India.
The execution was near flawless before lunch. Gabriel drew first blood when he got rid of Murali Vijay.
Vijay edged the second bouncer he faced for Kraigg Brathwaite to juggle a catch at second slip.
However, his dismissal of Pujara via a horribly miscued pull in the first over after lunch ushered in Kohli, who proceeded to transform the rest of the day into a testament to his ever-increasing stature as a batsman of the highest class. “Hopefully he scores big runs and gets a double-hundred after 150”. Shaping up to flick the ball, Dhawan ended fending the ball without looking at it. The ball gets a leading edge but fortunately for Dhawan, doesn’t carry to point.
Pujara looked untroubled on joining Dhawan at the crease with the pair putting on 60 before the middle-order player’s error of judgement at the start of the afternoon session.
Kohli added when asked by a reporter “Wicket is no different from what we play at home, will be a decent batting wicket”.
“If you speak about KL Rahul and someone like Shikhar, it’s very hard to take a call up front, in the first match of a series, because someone like Shikhar is a very dominant player, he can dominate sessions and bring you into the Test match, especially in conditions like West Indies”.
There was no seam, no unfriendly bounce, and the ball was too old to swing.
The two kept picking ones and twos effortlessly. The left-hander was dismissed for 84 by spinner Devandra Bishoo just before tea.
Only once previously was there an alarm for India during this partnership, when after a mini quiet period, Kohli drove at a wide Brathwaite delivery.
I am always in favour of playing five bowlers.
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Kohli was prepared to take both.
