India vs West Indies: Ravichandran Ashwin leads the way with 5/60 as visitors dominate Day 1 of Dominica Test

Team India began their tour of the Caribbean and the United States in style by thoroughly dominating the opening day of the first Test against the West Indies in Dominica on Wednesday. Spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (5/60) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/26) led the way as India bundled West Indies out for a sub-par 150 after the hosts won the toss and elected to bat. Debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal (40 not out) then got off to a promising start after opening the Indian innings alongside skipper Rohit Sharma (30 not out). The pair stitched an unbroken 80-run partnership after West Indies were bowled out shortly after tea to ensure the Indians ended the day with the game firmly in their grasp. The visitors trail by another 70 runs with all ten wickets intact, and will hope to make the most of the promising start and post a sizeable total on the second day and seize a handsome first innings lead. The only bright spot for the West Indies in what was otherwise a dull opening day was debutant and local lad Alick Athanaze’s fighting 47. Athanaze struck six fours and a six, targeting senior off-spinner Ashwin for the most part and forged a 41-run partnership with all-rounder Jason Holder than briefly gave the Windies hope of recovering from the shaky start and posting a competitive total on the board. Spinners lead the way for India With Jasprit Bumrah yet to recover from his back injury and Mohammed Shami rested for this tour, the onus of leading the attack fell on Mohammed Siraj, who shared the new ball with Jaydev Unadkat. The two, along with seam-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, were relegated to supporting roles as senior spinners Ashwin and Jadeja grabbed eight of the ten West Indian wickets that fell on the day. Skipper Rohit didn’t take long to turn to spin after Windies opted to bat and brought Ashwin into the attack. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner gave the visitors the start they would’ve hoped for by getting rid of openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul and Kraigg Brathwaite in quick succession. Ashwin’s dismissal of Chanderpaul made him the first Indian cricketer to dismiss a father-son pair in Tests; he had dismissed Tagenarine’s father Shivnarine in his debut series in 2011. Thakur got Raymon Reifer caught-behind shortly after, with wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan effecting his maiden Test dismissal with a low catch to his left. Jermaine Blackwood was starting to mount a rescue along with Athanaze when he was dismissed Ravindra Jadeja at the stroke of lunch, with Siraj pulling off a blinder near mid off. Athanaze though, appeared to be batting on a different surface and did not shy away from taking the attack to veterans Ashwin and Jadeja, smashing the former over long on for the only six of the West Indian innings besides making good use of the sweep and pull shots to collect boundaries at regular intervals. Athanaze, who featured in the 2018 U-19 World Cup, would have felt gutted to have missed out on a half-century on Test debut although he will have another shot at it later in the game.

Ashwin, meanwhile, brought up another milestone after his dismissal of Alzarri Joseph, becoming only the third Indian cricketer to collect 700 or more wickets in international cricket. The wily off-spinner would then bring the West Indian innings to an end by getting Jomel Warrican caught by Shubman Gill at forward short-leg, completing his 33rd Test five-for — his fifth against West Indies. Rohit, Jaiswal come up with perfect response India’s dominant display with the ball was complemented by the unbroken opening partnership between Rohit and Jaiswal that was worth 80 at the close of play. While Rohit opened the team’s account with a trademark pull off Alzarri Joseph and followed it up with a lovely square drive off veteran seamer Kemar Roach, Jaiswal took his time to overcome his nerves on his first day in office in the international arena. Jaiswal, who has already made quite the impact for Mumbai and Rajasthan Royals in domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League respectively, finally opened his account with a boundary, cutting a short, wide ball from Joseph over backward point for a four. Jaiswal was 10 short of his half-century at the close of play and will hope to convert the start into a bigger score on Thursday and make this a debut to remember. Brief scores: India 80/0 in 23 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 40*, Rohit Sharma 30*) trail West Indies 150 in 64.3 overs (Alick Athanaze 47, Kraigg Brathwaite 20; Ravichandran Ashwin 5/60, Ravindra Jadeja 3/26) by 70 runs.