Follow UsTeam India could not have asked for an easier, smoother return to Test cricket as they steamrolled past West Indies in the first Test in Ahmedabad, registering an innings and 140 runs victory without breaking a sweat. India racked up 448/5 declared in the only innings they batted, while the visitors were unable to bat 90 overs across two innings as they folded without putting up a fight.
As bad as West Indies’ batting was, the lack of threat on the bowling front was equally alarming, and a baffled Sunil Gavaskar, in his column for Sportstar, wrote about the toothlessness of the visitors’ pace attack in the first Test, with him particularly taking the case of Johann Layne and Justin Greaves.
It is to be noted, though, that West Indies are without two of their premier pacers in Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph, both of whom are out with injury.
“To see their new-ball attack in the first Test in Ahmedabad was a shock to those who have grown up seeing the ball whistle past the batters’ noses at least two or three times in an over,” Gavaskar wrote in his Sportstar column.
“In Ahmedabad, apart from Jayden Seales, the other two were simply trundlers, who looked more like net bowlers than international ones. No disrespect intended to them, but to see the first bouncer being bowled after half a dozen overs had been bowled made one ask, ‘Is this really the West Indies pace attack?’.”
The former India captain further wrote that he was deeply saddened by the state of West Indies in Tests, with the team being a shadow of what it once was.
“The ease with which India won the first Test match in Ahmedabad was no doubt wonderful to watch for Indian cricket fans, but at the same time, it was saddening to see the depths to which the West Indies, a once invincible team, had fallen,” Gavaskar wrote.
“There is not a cricket lover in the world who isn’t disappointed by the performances of the West Indies Test teams over the last couple of decades or so. Go around the cricketing world, and even those former players who suffered at the hands of the great West Indies teams of the 1960s to early 2000s feel frustrated at the performances,” he added.
It took only 2.5 days for team India to finish off the first Test. The second Test will start on October 10 (Friday) and it will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.