India openers Rohit Sharma and debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal have created a record, going past West Indies’ first innings score of 150 without loss, a first in the history of Indian Test cricket.
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West Indies were bundled out for 150 in their first innings after having won the toss and batted first in the first of the two-Test series at the Windsor Park in Dominica. Ravichandran Ashwin was the wreaker-in-chief as he picked his 33rd Test five-for, while Ravindra Jadeja claimed three wickets and Mohammad Siraj and Shardul Thakur chipped in with a wicket apiece.
Rohit and Jaiswal then came out to bat with a little more than 20 overs to go on day one. This was Rohit’s first Test as an opener in the West Indies, while Jaiswal was making his debut. Both batters not only embraced the new challenge, but also emphatically came out on top.
By Lunch on day two, they had taken India to 146-0, within touching distance of the West Indies’ first innings score, which they then breached soon after the break. This marked the first-ever instance of India going past the opposition first-innings total without the loss of a single wicket.
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India have been on the receiving end of such treatment a few times in the past, including as recently as 2021, when the opening pair of Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed stitched together 135 for the first wicket in reply to India’s paltry score of 78 at Headingley.
David Warner and Ed Cowan did something similar in the Perth Test in 2011. India were all out for 161 in the first innings and the Aussie opening pair went past the Indian total, stitching a mammoth 214-run first-wicket partnership. India ended up losing both those Tests by an innings.
Rohit and Jaiswal were measured in their approach. They are highly acclaimed limited-overs players as well and there might have been a temptation for them to look for big shots once they were settled at the crease. Jaiswal did play a reverse-sweep in the last over of day one, but given the field and the bowling, it was a percentage option and not a rash one.
With the partnership crossing 200, it has become the 14th 200-plus opening partnership for India in Tests, just the second against West Indies, and the first in West Indies.
Jaiswal has also reached his century, becoming the 17th Indian to score a Test century on debut.
