Author: Shamik Chakrabarty

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad It took 3,211 days. KL Rahul’s previous Test century at home was in 2016, against England in Chennai. Ahmedabad saw him break the home-soil hoodoo. Motera, now Narendra Modi Stadium, has been the theatre of many Indian milestones — Sunil Gavaskar’s 10,000th Test run, Kapil Dev surpassing Richard Hadlee to become the leading wicket-taker in the longest format and Sachin Tendulkar scoring his first Test double hundred. The venue opened its heart and hearth to Rahul and for the batter, it was special, irrespective of the fact he has another nine Test centuries on…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad Wobble seam, and a wobbling West Indies — that was the theme on Day 1 of the first Test here in Ahmedabad. Mohammed Siraj gave a masterclass in scramble-seam bowling with the new ball and semi-old. The ball moved left and right, and sometimes it held its line. The West Indies batsmen looked clueless. Brandon King likes to play his shots. He raced to 13 with three fours, but when Siraj started to make the ball come into him with a wobble seam, he was caught in the quagmire. The delivery that dismissed him landed a…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad Midway through the first session, the discussion in the press box was about whether this would be a three-day Test in Ahmedabad. West Indies were 42/4 in the 12th over after opting to bat first, and despite a 48-run fifth wicket partnership between Roston Chase and Shai Hope, they were never going to recover. The tourists were eventually all out for 162, and as things stand at the end of the first day’s play of the first Test here in Ahmedabad, the duration of the game will depend on how long India bat in their first…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad Mohammed Siraj ran in from the pavilion end, pitched the ball around off stump and made it seam away. Roston Chase is one of the handful of batsmen in this West Indies side with the right temperament to play Test cricket. He was applying himself well, batting on 24. The delivery, though, was nigh-on unplayable. A tentative forward defence saw him outside-edge it to Dhruv Jurel behind the stumps. The ball would probably have tested even Vivian Richards. The present-day West Indies captain was a sitting duck. Around this time last year, Siraj was almost on…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad For Jasprit Bumrah, the mini-break, after a rigorous Asia Cup in the Dubai heat, was well earned. As India started their preparations for the home Test series against the West Indies here in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, the fast bowler, along with Axar Patel, decided to opt out of the optional practice session. On Wednesday, he was there, going full tilt on one of the side pitches at Narendra Modi Stadium. Bumrah went to England with a pre-condition that he wouldn’t be playing more than three Tests in a five-match series. Against the West Indies, will he…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad To play Kuldeep Yadav or not to play him, that is the question. Shubman Gill, the India captain, kept his cards close to his heart when asked about the left-arm wrist-spinner’s presence in the playing XI in the first Test against the West Indies that starts here on Thursday. About the team composition, his answer felt like a soliloquy. “Yes, given how the weather looks like and how the conditions are, we would be tempted to have a third seaming option,” the skipper thought aloud, at the pre-match press conference. “But I think there is still…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad Mohammed Siraj had a mini stumble, as he alighted from the team bus. “Easy,” said KL Rahul who was in tow. The Indian team sans two local boys, Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel, turned up for their practice session at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday afternoon, but it was an optional session and nothing should be read into the absence of the two players who, along with Shubman Gill and Kuldeep Yadav, arrived in Ahmedabad pretty late last evening, after their Asia Cup assignment in Dubai. The first Test against the West Indies starts on…

Shamik Chakrabarty in Ahmedabad Hardik Pandya will miss the ODI series in Australia, but he will be available for the T20Is that follow, RevSportz understands. Pandya, one of India’s biggest match-winners in white-ball cricket, suffered a niggle during his team’s Asia Cup Super-4 fixture against Sri Lanka and missed the final against Pakistan. Shivam Dube more than made up for his absence in the summit clash, sharing the new ball with Jasprit Bumrah and then playing a match-winning hand, in association with Tilak Varma, under pressure. But in the shorter formats, Pandya is one of the first names on the…

This is Navratri time in this part of the world and the Garba beats are rhythmic and elongated, stretching until the early hours. A steady drizzle on Monday evening failed to dampen the spirit of the locals and even at 12 midnight, Manek Chowk, a prominent city square and the street food hub in Ahmedabad, was bustling. Cricket, the first home Test of the season, is seemingly not on anyone’s mind. An India versus West Indies red-ball series, in any case, is a low-profile affair, and the interest picking up in the next couple of days appears unlikely. The first…

Shamik Chakrabarty, Mumbai Once upon a time, the BCCI elections used to offer intrigue and mystique. The dinner for the officials on the AGM eve used to be the occasion where backroom parleys reached their crescendo. It’s an open-and-shut case these days. That Mithun Manhas would be elected unopposed as the new BCCI president was decided in a high-profile meeting a week ago. On Sunday, at the cricket board’s 94th Annual General Meeting, the formalities were completed. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) sounded the ‘red alert’ in Mumbai and adjoining districts for Sunday, and it has been bucketing down since…