India Vs West Indies, 1st Test, Day 1 Report: Boy Wonder Prithvi Shaw Continues His Meteoric Rise

The stage was perfectly set Prithvi Shaw to showcase his batting prowess. And the teenager from Mumbai made sure to leave a mark for himself, becoming the youngest Indian to score a hundred on Test debut.

At the close of opening day's play of the first Test at Rajkot, India were 364/4 after 89 overs with skipper Virat Kohli and Rishab Pant unbeaten of 72 and 17 respectively against a listless Windies bowling attack.

The day belonged to debutant Shaw. The opener hit 134 off 154 balls after losing his partner Lokesh Rahul in the very first over, trapped LBW by Shannon Gabriel off the last ball. But instead of giving in, the boy wonder played one of the most dominant innings for Indian opener in recent times. His strokeplay reminded many of Virender Sehwag, who himself scored a hundred on Test debut nearly 18 years ago against in South Africa.

Since making headlines as a 14-year-old, Shaw has let his bat do the talking. He scored 546 runs in a Harris Shield match, then went onto make a hundred on his First-class debut, 120 against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy semi-final at the same venue last year.

It was followed by another hundred (154) for India Red against India Blue in the Duleep Trophy final. He then led India to Under-19 World Cup win.

Before making his Test debut, Shaw had scored 1418 runs at an average of 56.72 with seven hundreds in 14 First-class matches.

Shaw, 18 years and 329 days old, reached the hundred with a double off the second ball of the 33rd over, bowled by Keemo Paul. He took 99 balls to reach the hundred. In the previous over, he hit Shannon Gabriel for back-to-back fours to race to 98. Then, he took a single off the first ball of the 32nd over to reach 99.

He thus broke Abbas Ali Baig's record. In 1959, Baig, then a boy of 20 years and 131 days, hit 112 against England at Old Trafford. It was also the first hundred by an Indian debutant outside India.

Shaw also became the youngest Indian to score a Test hundred after Sachin Tendulkar.

He posted a 206-run second-wicket stand with local boy Cheteswhar Pujara (86) as India scored runs at will against a seemingly toothless Windies bowling attack. With skipper Jason Holder, out with an ankle injury and pace spearhead Kemar Roach, who left the team owing to the death of his grandmother, the visitors are left to fend for themselves.

In the process, Pujara reached his 19th Test fifty in the 23rd over. And interestingly, it's the first time he has reached fifty before lunch on Day of a Test. He departed in the 42nd over, becoming Sherman Lewis' maiden Test wicket, caught behind off the last ball.

Shaw and skipper Kohli added 23 runs for the third wicket, then the teenager got out to a soft dismissal, caught and bowl by Devendra Bishoo off the second ball of 51st over.

Kohli and ais deputy Ajinkya Rahane (41) stitched a 105-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the Mumbai batsman's departure in the 84th over, to Roston Chase, caught behind.

Kohli brought up his 20th fifty with a double off in the 77th over. He now needs seven more runs to complete 3000 Test runs at home. If he manages to convert it into a hundred, he will be one shy of 60th international hundred.

364/4 is India's most runs scored in a day's play against the Windies, beating the previous best of 361/4 on Day 1 at Gros Islet in 2006.

India won the toss and opted to bat. And as widely reported on the eve of the match, Shaw got the nod, while Shardul Thakur done the role of 12th man.

For the Windies, Kraigg Brathwaite is leading the side with Holder injured. Gabriel, Sherman Lewis, Bishoo and Chase got a wicket each.

Teams:

India: KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav.

West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite (c), Kieran Powell, Shai Hope, Shimron Hetmyer, Roston Chase, Sunil Ambris, Shane Dowrich (wk), Keemo Paul, Devendra Bishoo, Sherman Lewis, Shannon Gabriel

Brief Scores

India: 364/4 in 89 overs (Prithvi Shaw 134, Cheteshwar Pujara 86, Virat Kohli 72*; Sherman Lewis 1-56)