Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane resisted with 81, but West Indies enjoyed a productive opening day in the first Test, reducing India to 203/6.
Jason Holder won the toss and elected to bowl first in Antigua, and it seemed the right call from the bright start West Indies enjoyed. Kemar Roach – so impressive during West Indies’ last Test assignment, the 2-1 series win over England earlier this year – took two wickets in the fifth over to get things going. A review showed Mayank Agarwal’s outside edge being found to see to the first dismissal, and Cheteshwar Pujara offered another catch behind to Shai Hope four balls later.
Virat Kohli hit a couple of boundaries but his prized wicket came in the eight over, as he found the safe hands of Shamarh Brooks at gully to hand Shannon Gabriel his first wicket of the day. From there, Rahane and KL Rahul weathered the momentum of the Windies bowlers, and at lunch, India looked in a more decent state at 68/3.
Rahul looked set to go to his 12th Test half-century after the break, but fell to Roston Chase for 44, a faint nick leading to some very sharp work behind the stumps from Hope. Nevertheless, Hanuma Vihari built on Rahul’s good work and provided steady company to Rahane, who reached his 18th Test half-century before the prospect of rain saw to tea being taken early.
West Indies found their groove once again after the break. Vihari edged behind off another probing delivery from Roach before Rahane fell 19 runs short of what would’ve been his first Test ton in two years, dragging the ball onto his stumps, Gabriel the bowler. Nonetheless, while Rahane failed to go to the coveted three figures, his knock was a crucial one, taking up 163 balls and featuring 10 boundaries.
From there, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja were forced into resistance. Two attacking left-handers by nature, the pair accumulated just 14 runs over the course of the next 55 balls before rain brought a premature end to the day.
It was a tough first day for India in the Test series. Having been so dominant in the limited-overs contests, it appears that success in the long-form arena is unlikely to come as easily against a West Indies Test side that is on the rise.
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