The Indian cricket team, playing their first Test after seven months were welcomed by a tiny crowd at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua, but the calm and quite atmosphere did help them to get into their groove right from the word ‘go’ as, by the end of the first day’s play, the Virat-Kohli led outfit were sitting pretty with 302 runs on the board for the loss of four wickets.

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Here are some of the major talking points of Day 1:-

Dhawan aided by Kumble’s mantra

One of the beneficiaries of Anil Kumble’s ‘one-hour survival test’ at the pre-tour camp was Shikhar Dhawan, as the southpaw finally spent considerable time at the crease while facing the red cherry. He was slow to start with but dug deep and cut down on his instinctive stroke play to negate the early threat posed by the likes of Shannon Gabriel, Jason Holder, and Carlos Braithwaite.

Once he crossed the 50-run mark, Dhawan grew in confidence and opened up the field with some attacking shots while exploiting the third man region on pacers’ bowling. He was particularly aggressive against leggie Devendra Bishoo but missed a straightforward delivery of the latter to be dismissed 16 short of his fifth Test ton.

Poor shots led to Pujara and Rahane’s downfall

Both Cheteshwar Pujara (16) and Ajinkya Rahane (22) were guilty of not converting sedate starts into big scores. Bishoo was again at the fore dismissing the right-handers, but it was the manner in which these two got out that will make them seriously unhappy.

While Pujara, in a hurry to dispatch a rank short ball to the offside fence, offered a leading edge to point, Rahane top edged a similar delivery to mid wicket. It was an ideal chance for them to score big on this flat deck but now they have to wait to another innings.

Coloured or whites, Kohli shines brightly

Kohli seems to be a man possessed to hit centuries at will in any format on any surface across the globe. The man who has been dismissed below 10 on only four occasions this year, surely wanted to better his Test record in the country where he made his debut in whites. And not only was he successful in his venture but also was able to up the run rate from the time he stepped out to the middle.

Few edges past slips were the only blemishes in his superbly timed innings but he should be forgiven as, throughout the innings, Kohli maintained a strike rate of above 70 when his teammates were struggling to go at 60. The skipper, batting on 143 looks set for his maiden double ton unless a magical delivery gets him out.

Ashwin preferred over Wriddhiman

Almost 23 overs were left when Rahane went back to the hut, but surprisingly it was off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who walked out to the middle instead of wicket-keeper batsman Wriddhiman Saha. 

At the first instance, the motive of the move couldn’t be judged as shielding a batsman with so much time left on the clock shouldn't have been the case. But gradually as the game progressed, the picture became clearer as Ashwin activated ‘attack’ mode to get some quick runs off the tiring Windies bowlers. He eventually slowed down as stumps drew close, protecting his wicket for second day’s play. 

Kumble in all probabilities wants to keep a genuine batsman in Saha until the end to pile up the first innings score.

Windies missed a trick by not picking Narine

On a wicket where fast bowlers had to bend their back to a great extent to extract minimal assistance, Bishoo, in spite of being costly, picked up three crucial wickets. One can definitely wonder why Sunil Narine, plying his trade for Trinbago Knight Riders in Caribbean Premier League wasn’t picked for the side.

The off-spinner, with an economy of more than 3 and average of 40.52 in whites, may not be as effective as shorter formats, but he would surely have bowled a tight line while mounting the pressure on the batters and might have got wickets in the bargain. It now remains to be seen whether the hosts’ decision to hand a debut to offie, Roston Chase would backfire or not.