Rahul's fifty takes India to 87/3 at lunch

Indian batsmen faltered against the rising ball before Lokesh 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 today.
At the Darren Sammy Stadium, Ajinkya Rahane (17*) and Rohit Sharma (9*) were the unbeaten batsmen going into the break, after India made a minor recovery from 19/2 at one stage.
It was after West Indies won the toss and elected to field given the lively pitch here. They made two changes, bringing in Leon Johnson for dropped 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 runs, 65 balls, 6 fours).
Gabriel started off with couple loose deliveries that allowed Rahul to get going easily, and was in complete contrast to what was to come later on. Soon enough, the fast bowling duo worked up their pace and their plans bore fruit.

They used the short ball to good effect, particularly Gabriel as he squeezed Dhawan for room down the leg side. The left-handed opener looked to pull one in the third over, and edged to the keeper Shane Dowrich.

Surprisingly then, skipper Virat Kohli (3) came out to bat and was tested immediately with a mix of short and moving deliveries. 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.
India were in all sorts of trouble then, but Rahul added 58 runs for the third wicket with Rahane who came in at no.4. The Karnataka opener continued his good run of form, and scored a chanceless first Test half-century. He was comfortable against the short ball attack from Gabriel-Joseph and then negotiated Miguel Cummins (0-22) and Jason Holder (0-6) easily as well.

He helped bring up the 50-mark for India in the 13th over, and his 50-partnership with Rahane came off 68 balls. Thereafter Rahul reached his fifty off 64 deliveries, as Roston Chase (1-6) came on to bowl. But off the very next ball, in the 20th over, fell to the West Indies' trap, as he hit straight to Kraigg Brathwaite at short fine leg.
Rahane had looked uncomfortable against Holder again, but tightened up his game to survive until lunch. Rohit had come out to bat thereafter, and faced a couple testing overs from Gabriel. But he too survived the little phase before the break.

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Root and Hameed then batted steadily, with the former showing particularly good use of feet to tackle spin. He also hit two lovely cover-driven fours in successive balls from Ashwin in the off spinner's seventh over.
But Ashwin extracted his revenge on England two overs later by sending back Hameed with a ball that turned in a bit and got past the defensive shot of the rookie opener who played outside the line to be rapped on back foot.
DRS was called for by the visiting team for the first-time on Indian soil and it confirmed the original verdict of the umpire and the batsman departed for 31, inclusive of six fours, after a stay of 98 minutes.

The wicket fell with 18 minutes for lunch break and brought cheers to the home side's camp. The left-handed Duckett set about attacking Ashwin with two sweeps and another extra cover drive for fours soon after arriving to the crease.
However, in the next over - the final one before lunch - Ashwin got him edging a defensive shot to the right of slip fielder Rahane who atoned for an earlier lapse with a diving catch to give the edge to the hosts. Root looked solid at the break having faced 50 balls and struck 5 fours in his stay.

India went in with five bowlers by including leg-spinner Amit Mishra, as the third spinner, for the first time since the second Test against the West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica.
The 33-year-old will thus be playing his 21st Test in eight years and was not included in the eleven for the last four Tests, one in the West Indies and all the three against New Zealand at home.