India defeated West Indies in the first test, in Dominica. Where Yashasvi Jaiswal, the debutant, and the spin master Ashwin gave their stellar performances for an easy win against the Caribbean side.
India thrashed the West Indies in the first test by an innings and 141 runs to register a comprehensive and easy win against the WI. In the final session of day-3, the home team got bundled out for a low score of just 130 in the second innings and suffered an innings defeat. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ravichandran Ashwin were the star performers of the match, Jaiswal who was making his debut in red-ball cricket scored 171 and Ashwin who was spinning some magical deliveries on the pitch against the West Indies batters scalped 12 wickets in the match. It was Ashwin who utilised the extra bounce and turns that were on offer, making it difficult for their entire middle-order batter to read his variations and turn throughout the match.
Apart from Jaiswal and Ashwin, the Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma also scored a century which became his 10th century in Test cricket and second overseas century in his Test career. Marking a way and proving the criticism wrong is suiting the Indian skipper in recent times. Virat Kohli, the former Indian Skipper also scored another half-century, reaching a tally of 29 fifties in test cricket. Virat had a brilliant opportunity in his hands to add another century to his pocket but he failed to score it and was dismissed by Cornwall when he was on 76.
Gill and Rahane failed to score big. Gill, who had expressed his desire to play at number 3, failed to even reach a double-digit score and could only manage to score 6 runs. Meanwhile, Ajinkya Rahane, standing his first test after getting selected as the vice-captain of the Indian Team, scored only 3 runs. Both the batter seemed to go for quick runs but failed to convert them into big ones. They will be looking to grab the golden opportunity in the second Test. Jadeja yet again showed his brilliant performance in the first test with both bat and ball, he managed to take 5 wickets with the ball and scored 37 runs with the bat.
Another debutant from the West Indies side, Alick Athanaze was making a debut against India. He showed his class and commitment to the game, where other batters failed miserably, he was the only top scorer for the WI in both innings, hammering 47 and 28. He also took the wicket of Rohit Sharma with his off-spin who was well-settled at the crease and was looking for a high score on the second day. No other batter could even touch the 25-run mark.
West Indies, a country that gave us some of the best cricketers like Sir Viv Richards, Sir Garfield Sobers, Michael Holding, and Brian Lara from their side, who used to dominate World Cricket for a time has been struggling to even cross 150+ scores in red-ball cricket. This brings the darkest time for them in International Cricket not only as a Team but also as World Champions. Recently, West Indies couldn’t even qualify for the World Cup for the first time and suffered an embarrassing exit from the Qualifiers happening in Zimbabwe, this would have affected them. This loss against India in the first Test would be no less than rubbing a pinch of salt on their burn.
