(Cricket news) It was a rather entertaining day 1 of the 1st Test between India and Sri Lanka in Mohali. Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first. India as expected went with 2 seamers and 3 spinners but chose to go for Jayant Yadav instead of Kuldeep Yadav. Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Iyer were picked ahead of Shubman Gill to play at number 3 and 5. Sri Lanka on the other hand decided to stick with seamers and 1 spinner along with their 2 part time spinners.
Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma started well, scoring runs at a higher rate than usual. The Indian skipper in typical fashion was pulling the short ball but eventually slogged Lahiru Kumara's ball straight to fine leg. 10 overs later Lasith Embuldeniya's arm ball trapped Agarwal plum in front. With India 80-2, Virat Kohli walked out in his 100th Test match which was also his first time since 2014 where he is not captain. Kohli along with Hanuma Vihari who was playing in his new role at number 3 stitched together a 90 run partnership. The pair played some exquisite strokes and punished the bad balls. Kohli also completed 8000 runs in Test cricket. The partnership was broken by Embuldeniya who dismissed Kohli on 45 with an absolute beauty which left the former Indian skipper shell shocked. Hanuma Vihari completed a fine half century but then lost his composure as he tried to chase too many deliveries outside off stump. He eventually played on Vishwa Fernando's ball onto his stumps and was dismissed on 58.
Rishabh Pant came in to bat ahead of Shreyas Iyer at number 5 presumably to get a left and right hand combination. Iyer and Pant put 53 runs together as they played their shots freely. Iyer was trapped by Dhananjaya de Silva on 27 as Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat. In the 3rd session, Lahiru Kumara had to walk out of the field due to a hamstring injury. Rishabh Pant kept going strong at one end, playing his usual game of stepping out against the spinners and seamers as well. After completing his half, Pant switched gears completely. He started taking on the spinners in typical pant fashion and started playing with the field. Pant smashed Embuldeniya for 22 runs in one over. He was closing in on what would've been one of the best centuries on Indian soil. Unfortunately he was clean bowled by Suranga Lakmal in the first over of the 2nd new ball. Pant completely missed the ball and played a loose defence on 96 off just 97 balls.
Despite missing his ton by 4 runs, the keeper completely turned the game around in that short period when he switched to T20 mode. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja negotiated well as India ended the day at 357-6. All Indian batters got starts but couldn't get the big scores. It was completely Sri Lanka's day before Pant turned the heat on. With Jadeja and Ashwin on the crease and Jayant Yadav left to come India will be eyeing at least 450.
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