Ahmedabad: Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah combined to decimate the West Indies for a paltry 162 before the in-form KL Rahul struck a measured half-century as India expectedly dominated the opening day of the first Test here on Thursday.
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.
For someone who has almost every shot in his arsenal, 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.
The surface seemed more responsive to the new ball as West Indies pacer Jayden Seales troubled the Indian openers, beating the outside edge and even the batters’ trust on the bounce, which he generated a tad more.
But from the other end, debutant Johann Layne took his time settling in as some of his initial deliveries were sprayed down the leg side.
Earlier, it was one-way traffic all the way through from the Indian bowlers, who were once again admirably led by Siraj as they shot out the West Indies for 162 after the visitors opted to bat.
Siraj couldn’t complete a much-deserved five-for but caused consistent trouble for the Caribbean batters.
Siraj produced the ball of the innings after lunch when he angled one into the right-handed Chase (24), who was squared up and an outside edge was collected by the wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel.
Siraj took three wickets upfront in a lethal seven-over spell in the first session and added one more post lunch, but came close twice to complete his fifer, which was not meant to be.
Pace spearhead Bumrah also found his rhythm with the red ball, nailing a couple of yorkers to return 14-3-42-3.
Kuldeep Yadav (2/25), who had produced a jaffa to dismiss Hope earlier in the morning session, took the final wicket of the innings when he got Jomel Warrican (8) caught behind reverse-sweeping.
Washington Sundar, the last of India’s bowlers to have been introduced into the attack, returned figures of 1/9.
Justin Greaves top-scored with 32, Chase made 24, and Hope scored 26, but overall the Caribbean batters cut a sorry figure on a day one wicket.
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