On day one of the Kolkata test, India’s score read 17/3 in 11.3 overs at stumps. The star of the day clearly was Suranga Lakmal who ended with figures of 0/3 in 6 overs. Only once before, such a thing has ever happened, when Richie Benaud took the last three wickets against India in the Delhi Test in 1959 to end with figures of 0/3 in 3.4 overs.
Lakmal stunned team India with figures of 6-6-0-3, and rattled world’s best batting line up with prized scalps of KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. During most memorable bowling spell of his career, Chandimal gave him Four Slips and a Gully! Against Indian batting, that too in their home soil, these were rare scenes.
The entire first session was washed out and the toss could take place only at 1 pm, after early lunch was taken by the officials. The visitors put India to bat first after winning the toss in overcast conditions.
Lakmal made full use of the conditions and removed India opener KL Rahul on the first ball of the innings itself. Rahul became only the third batsman ever to be dismissed for a golden duck at this venue after he edged the ball straight into the hands of wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella. The other two batsmen on this unwanted list are Sudhir Naik and Sunil Gavaskar. Woorkeri Raman, Shiv Sunder Das and Wasim Jaffer are the other Indian batsmen to be dismissed on the first ball off a Test match, but at different venues.
Few balls later, Dhawan paid for his impatience dearly as an expansive drive off the bowling of Lakmal in the seventh over of the innings cost him his wicket. The ball hit the inside edge of Dhawan’s bat and rattled his stumps when he was batting on 8.
Though, India were dealt the biggest blow of the day when a Lakmal delivery thudded into the pads of Kohli on the first ball of the eleventh over. Kohli and the Indian skipper opted for the DRS. However, replays showed that the ball was hitting the leg-stump and Kohli had to return without opening his account. This is only the sixth time in his career that Kohli has been dismissed for a duck in Tests.
