India vs West Indies, Day 1 - Stats: Sizzling Virat Kohli stamps his authority
It had been more than seven months India played their previous Test. However, Virat Kohli’s troops shrugged off the rustiness with a sound display on the opening day of the first Test against West Indies in Antigua.
Kohli himself led from the front through an aggressive century on a pitch which did not provide much assistance to the bowlers. Showing intent from the very beginning, the 27-year-old punished the loose deliveries and rotated the strike with ease.
He was ably supported by opener Shikhar Dhawan who fell just short of three figures. For the hosts, leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo managed to prise out key wickets while pacer Shannon Gabriel employed the short ball to considerable effect.
Having gotten themselves into a dominant position at 302/4, the Indians could start eyeing a substantial first-innings score. Meanwhile, let us take a look at the most important statistics from the day's play.
3 – Number of 100-plus stands between Dhawan and Kohli for the third wicket. The impressive aspect of their partnership is that it has come in only five innings together.
4 – Centuries for Kohli as skipper outside Asia. Among Indian captains, he trails behind only Mohammad Azharuddin who has five such tons.
5 – Consecutive tosses won by India in the longest format, just one shy of the Indian record. Aside from this one, Kohli called correctly every time in the 4-match series against South Africa at home.
5 – Dhawan joined the likes of Madhav Apte, Sunil Gavaskar, VVS Laxman and Ajay Jadeja to become the fifth Indian opener to score fifty-plus in their maiden innings in the Caribbean.
8 – Innings before which Dhawan scored his previous fifty in Test matches. His last such effort was the 134 against Sri Lanka in Galle.
8 – Instances wherein a captain reached three figures during his maiden Test innings in West Indies. Kohli now has a century in his maiden innings as captain in Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies.
73 – Innings taken by Kohli to post his 12th Test hundred which is the second quickest among Indian batsmen after Gavaskar who took 66 innings.
84 – Dhawan's knock was the fourth highest score by an Indian batsman in his maiden Test innings in West Indies. Polly Umrigar‘s 130 at the Port of Spain in the 1952/53 tour remains the highest.
146 – Highest individual score by an Indian captain in West Indies. Kohli needs only four more runs to eclipse Rahul Dravid’s exploits at Gros Islet in 2006.
410 – Average first innings total at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua. Normally a high-scoring venue, the median score for the second-innings would be 390.
1000 – Kohli moved past the 1000-run mark as Indian captain to etch his name as the ninth batsman from his country to manage the feat. Taking 18 innings, he is the second quickest alongside MS Dhoni while Gavaskar needed just 14 innings to do the same.
3000 – Kohli became the 19th Indian batsman to go past the 3000-run mark in Tests. Having taken 73 innings, he is the eighth quickest to get to the landmark.