India vs West Indies: Team India gears up to continue lead

Ravichandran Ashwin, who took 4 wickets in the first innings, ended up with 2 wickets in the second. “Now the young players in this team do not have anyone like that in a position of having been there and done that”, he told Indian Express.

With little competition between the two sides, the two-Test series against the West Indies is an opportunity for the Indians to improve their numbers and for the statisticians to go into an overdrive. They had last drawn a Test series in India back in 1994 – the only time Brian Lara played Test cricket in India.

Kohli said Shaw, 21-year-old wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant and batsman Hanuma Vihari, 24, had learned to handle the stress of top competition by playing in the Indian Premier League.

During his innings, he hit five fours and as much sixes, while Virat Kohli scored 139 runs off 230 balls. “Credit to India, they played well and showed us how to bat”, said Brathwaite, who led West Indies in absence of injured regular skipper Jason Holder.

The skipper scored his 24th hundred in Rajkot where he ran almost 100 runs (99) in singles and doubles. India trounced West Indies in what was their biggest ever Test victory.

Rahane has gone without a Test hundred for almost 14 months (last hundred came against Sri Lanka in August 2017).

Awarded the Khel Ratna last month for his superlative performances with the bat, keeping ViratKohli quiet has been impossible this year. The team management has also put their weight behind KL Rahul, who fell for a duck. “I am sure we will learn from our mistakes in the first game and move on smartly in the second game”, Chase said on the eve of the second Test. “Four bowlers would have struggled in these conditions and we just wanted to give them bit more breaks in between and still have quality bowling coming at the opposition”. Kieran Powell’s 83 and Roston Chase’s 53 were the only notable contributions from the Caribbean batting line-up in the first game. Recently, former West Indies captain Carl Hooper was critical of youngsters in the island nations being only interested in T20 contracts but without taking names, the current skipper presented a contrarian view. They would love to redeem themselves, which looks highly unlikely as of now.

Prithvi Shaw scored a century on Test debut in the first Test against West Indies at Rajkot.