Jasprit Bumrah took three wickets, two of which were off a couple of trademark yorkers smashing into the base of the stumps, as India dominated West Indies on Day 1 of the Ahmedabad Test on Thursday. In the process, he made yet another record his own.
At stumps, the hosts reached 121/2 with another 41 runs in arrears. Siraj (4/40) and Bumrah (3/32) were the architects of India’s dominating show on a day when rain caused a brief disruption to the proceedings.
Rahul, who struck the first fifty of the series, was batting on 53 off 114 balls with six fours accompanied by India captain Shubman Gill on 18 (42 balls, 1x4s). India lost Yashasvi Jaiswal (36) after his 68-run opening stand with Rahul and B Sai Sudharsan (7) fell soon after, but the hosts largely remained unchallenged on the opening day of this two-Test affair.
Jaiswal took a patient approach to the innings hitting his first boundary after facing 37 deliveries. But he turned on the heat smacking six more over the next 16 balls before he fell. Once he broke free, Jaiswal dealt only in boundaries on both sides of the wicket and from a sedate start of 4 off 36 balls, he raced to 36 off 54 balls hitting seven fours overall.
But paying the price of playing one shot too many, Jaiswal cut one close to his body which resulted in an outside edge going to Shai Hope behind the wickets off Jayden Seales.
If Jaiswal failed to convert his start, No.3 Sudharsan (7) could not even spend enough time to give himself a chance.
Unscathed from a mix-up between the wickets with Rahul after he failed to respond to a second run while being inattentive to his partner in the 24th over, Sudharsan fell to West Indies skipper Roston Chase in the next.
Sudharsan went for a pull shot against the off-spinner while misjudging the length of the ball, which pitched in line of the stumps and hit him on the back leg. Sudharsan was bent awkwardly playing the shot when he missed the connection completely, and walked off without contemplating a review.
Rahul, on the other hand, came out on top after some initial struggles with the new ball. With plenty of time in hand and India not in a hurry to impose the inevitable, he paced his innings to hold one end strongly.
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