Virender Sehwag at his swaggering best gave India a perfect start on the opening morning of the first Test against England in Ahmedabad. A relaid pitch at Motera came with a rejuvenated Sehwag, who did much as he pleased.
This was a strange brand of Test cricket, dominated by Sehwag at his most adventuresome, defending almost as an afterthought and punishing each England bowler in turn. He shared a century opening partnership with Gautam Gambhir for the first time since India faced South Africa in Centurion in 2010. Gambhir had proclaimed them still the best opening duo in the country, and at lunch few would find much cause to question that, but he was a bit player in a first session that surrendered to the whims of a partner bent upon destruction.
The build-up had been dominated by talk of absent Indian spinners in England warm-up matches and of BCCI stand-offs with TV stations, radio and photographic agencies. England players had lain awake late at night listening to Diwali fireworks and wondering if more fireworks would soon be in store.
They were, and they came in the form of Sehwag's batting pyrotechnics that left England's bowlers breathless. India have never lost a Test at home after beginning with a century stand. That could be the first of many statistics to pronounce to England that their chances are already slim. It was all a long way from England's domination of India in English conditions last summer.
Sehwag's 50 came in only 45 balls, by lunch he had 79 from 66 with 12 fours and a six. Runs came at a tempo that Test cricket rarely sees: 50 by the 12th over; 100 by the 20th. Sehwag possessed a hunched, insouciant air that suggested the match was of little consequence and he was just having a bit of a bash. It was dismissive flat-track bullying of a sort that he had not produced for some time.
England's pace attack persistently bowled too wide at Sehwag. When he took 12 from Jimmy Anderson's fourth over, all of them flying through point, those who had set alarms in England for a 4am start must have wondered sleepily if they were watching action replays.
Tim Bresnan, England's holding bowler, a man to squeeze things dry if the innings began to turn against them, disappeared for 4-4-6 in his sixth over, the second boundary, a drag through mid-on against a ball that crept through verging on the insulting, the six over wide long-on that followed, a full swing at a length ball, entirely dismissive.
It was a huge toss for India to win. The only impact that England's pace bowlers made was on the footholds that were soon evident, suggesting that a somnolent pitch in the first half of the match could turn alarmingly by the end. India, as expected, went into the Test with two specialist spinners - R Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha - with Yuvraj Singh also able to provide left-arm spin as required. England, as England tend to do, omitted a second specialist spinner, Monty Panesar, and relied upon Samit Patel to give back-up to Graeme Swann. If the ball did not reverse for Bresnan, as it did as early as the ninth over in a warm-up match on the adjacent B ground, England faced the prospect of a desperately dispiriting day.
The opening partnership of Sehwag and Gambhir had not been productive of late. Track back their statistics for a considerable period and it was easy to show both batsmen averaging less than 30. Initially there were hints of vulnerability - a flirty push square of the wicket by Gambhir, a half-cock defensive push from Sehwag, but this pitch allowed such liberties.
Before too long Anderson was wearing his worried expression, his new-ball spell limited to four overs. Stuart Broad dug in his second delivery, saw it bounce no higher than the top of the stumps and looked at it quizzically as if he could stare it into behaving differently. By lunch, at slip, Alastair Cook pondered whether his elevation to the Test captaincy really was a good idea after all.
