Indian batsmen faltered against the rising ball before L. Rahul’s solid 50 left his team at 87 for three at lunch on day one of the third Test against the West Indies here on Tuesday.
West Indies won the toss and elected to field given the lively pitch here. The host made two changes, bringing in Leon Johnson for opener Rajendra Chandrika and then opting for 19-year-old pacer Alzarri Joseph in place of leg spinner Devendra Bishoo.
India made three changes from the Jamaica Test, bringing in Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Cheteshwar Pujara, Amit Mishra and Umesh Yadav respectively.
Shannon Gabriel (1-33) and Joseph (1-15) then started proceedings with the new ball against Shikhar Dhawan (1) and Rahul (50, 65b, 6x4).
Gabriel started off with a couple loose deliveries that allowed Rahul to get going easily, and this was in complete contrast to what was to come later on. Soon enough, the fast bowlers worked up their pace and their plans bore fruit.
They used the short ball to good effect. Dhawan looked to pull one in the third over, and edged to ’keeper Shane Dowrich.
Quite surprisingly, skipper Virat Kohli (3) came out to bat. It was a bold move, but it didn’t work as Kohli edged a rising delivery from the young Joseph to first slip where Darren Bravo completed a regulation catch.
