India and New Zealand took the field in Green Park to begin the two-match Test series. Fifties from Shreyas Iyer and Ravindra Jadeja stabilized the collapse in the middle order and took the honours on Day 1 of the first Test.
Stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bat first. Shreyas Iyer was handed his debut cap by Sunil Gavaskar. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav will share the new ball as India opt to play three spinners.
New Zealand, on the other hand, decided to leave out Neil Wagner from their playing XI and play with three spinners as well.
Amid thick smog in the stadium. New Zealand got an early breakthrough with the wicket of Mayank Agarwal. The opener perished for 13 by Kyle Jamieson.
The pitch, showed signs of variable bounce right from the word go with a hint of swing as well. India finished the session with just the fall of a solitary wicket.
The second session began on the worst possible note for the hosts. Shubman Gill departed right after scoring a fifty. The youngster’s struggles to convert his fifties into a mammoth score continued after his return from injury.
India’s middle-order also walked back to the pavilion after doing the hard work and settling in. Pujara’s woes outside the off-stump continued to be his downfall as a light out-swinger from Southee did the trick. Skipper Rahane chopped on one right onto his stumps after surviving a review call.
Debutant Shreyas Iyer struggled to get going at the start and narrowly escaped from being dismissed for a duck. He went from strength to strength in his maiden innings in white to notch a well-constructed half-century.
Iyer was well supported by Ravindra Jadeja, who slowly stacked up the runs in the majority of the third session. The all-rounder continued his fine run of form to score his 17th Test fifty for India. The hosts finished the final session without the fall of a single wicket and ended the first day on 258-4.
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