Yashasvi’s Dream Debut, Ashwin’s Magic help India dominate Windies!!

Team India has begun its new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle with a bang against the West Indies. The first two days of the 2-Test series have been great for Team India’s morale especially after the crushing loss in the WTC Final recently. While it was always a given that India would dominate this Caribbean tour, their performance has been way above par in each session of the first couple of days.

The biggest gain has, of course, been Yashasvi Jaiswal’s terrific ton on debut. His dream story from selling Panipuri to IPL success to now a sensational start to his international career has been well-documented. But it’s his calm temperament and superb stroke-play in his very first test innings that has caught the attention of the biggest cricket experts around the world!

At the end of the second day India were in a dominant position with 312 for the loss of 2 wickets and a lead of 162 runs. Jaiswal was unbeaten on 143 having faced 350 balls, the most by any Indian on Test debut. The previous highest, where balls-faced data is available, was 322 by Mohammad Azharuddin in 1984, during his 110 against England at Eden Gardens in 1983.

Significantly, India has found a new opening pair, a left-right combination that ensured many new records. The partnership of 229 between Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal is the highest opening stand for India in Tests outside Asia. The previous highest was 213 between Chetan Chauhan and Sunil Gavaskar at The Oval in 1979. It is also India’s third highest opening stand away from home. Also, the Rohit-Jaiswal partnership is India’s highest for the first wicket in Tests against West Indies, surpassing the 201-run stand between Virender Sehwag and Sanjay Bangar in the 2002 Wankhede Test.

Giving Jaiswal company at the other end his captain, Rohit Sharma also looked in great touch as he got to his 10th Test century. The last time both openers scored hundreds in the same Test innings against West Indies was way back in 2008 when Phil Jacques and Simon Katich scored tons in Australia’s second innings in the 2008 Bridgetown Test.

Interestingly, it’s the first instance of India taking the first-innings lead without losing a wicket. The closest they came before this match was 45 years ago in the 1978 Sydney Test, where Gavaskar and Chauhan put on a 97-run opening stand after Australia got bowled out for 131.

If a debutant has stolen the show on the batter’s side, on the bowling front, it’s the oldest and the most seasoned spinner, Ravi Ashwin, who took the honors. His 5-wicket haul underlined what a huge blunder it was to drop the veteran offie from the WTC Final. Ashwin broke the opening stand which had resisted for the first hour after Windies won the toss and decided to bat. Later, Ravi Jadeja too picked up 3 wickets to skittle Windies line up to a paltry 150.

While spin twins Ashwin and Jadeja were too skilled for the Windies batsmen, India’s pacers were far from impressive! Cricket fans and experts are mystified that when India has several quality pacers, why is Unadkat getting chosen all too frequently - that too in his 30s. The recent insistence on youth by Indian selectors has meant that Cheteshwar Pujara has been dropped and Shubhman Gill has taken over the number 3 slot from him.

In the absence of Bumrah and Shami, this was a perfect opportunity, to choose young pacers like Umran Malik. As Mark Wood showed so successfully in the recent Ashes test, sheer pace has a special place in Test cricket. There have been hardly any bowlers in Indian cricket history who have clocked the speed that Umran has regularly touched. In fact, he clocked an impressive 157 km/hr in IPL 2022. If not in their prime of youth, when will players like Umran get a chance?

All eyes will be focused on the other debutant Ishan Kishan too. How he fares both with the bat and the gloves will be followed closely. With Rishabh Pant injured, Ishan is critical for India’s ODI World Cup plans. Indian fans will also want their other stalwart, Kohli, to play a big knock as chances of an innings win seem bright for Team India.

Kohli also crossed the landmark of 8500 Test runs during his unbeaten knock on the second day. But given the weak Windies side, Team India could well have done without Rohit and Virat giving a chance to more youngsters as Sunil Gavaskar suggested. For the moment, however, it will take a miracle for the Windies to put India in any trouble on their way to lead the series 1-0!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Siddhaarth Mahan The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry