The turning point: Rohit Sharma shines in his first Test innings

Within a minute of his arrival and before he could score a Test run,it was 83/5. Virat Kohli had gone. At this point,West Indies were not just clearly on top. Overhauling their first innings score of 234 seemed too much of an ask for the Indians. What could a debutant do that players with 63 Test hundreds between them couldn’t?

By stumps on Day Two,India not only had its hemorrhage clotted,but also flaunted a 120-run lead. On a pitch that had cost half the side for 47 runs,India managed 272 runs in Rohit’s presence. He scored 127 of them,mostly in the company of Ravichandran Ashwin,a No.8 bat.

“Just happy to make it count,” he said at the press conference. What he perhaps wanted to say was: “I’ve been dreaming for the last three weeks,don’t wake me up.”

As recently as September,if you would have told Rohit that he would score a hundred on his Test debut when the team needed him the most,he would have laughed. No,not because he doesn’t trust his skills and instincts in the long format. He does,he really does. It’s just that for far too long,no one else did. “All I could do was wait,” he added.

Until October,all the waiting in the world didn’t help him score a one-day century for three years. So he put the waiting on hold when the Australians came visiting for a one-day series. First,in Jaipur,his 141 not out helped India chase down the second highest one-day target in history. Then,in Bangalore,his 209 became the second highest one-day score in history.

Rohit said: “Bangalore was just five days back,I had momentum flowing.”

Nothing flowed for a while. On this two-paced Eden pitch,where Shane Shillingford was scalping heads like Shane Warne (flaunting figures of 4 for 32 at one stage),Rohit’s first challenge was to see him off. So he played close to his body,attempting to dibble and dabble,needle and nurdle. For 13 balls he scored no runs,before Sheldon Cottrell looked to bounce him. Then Rohit got behind the line off the ball and pulled it towards fine-leg region for four. These were his first runs. India now looked plumper at lunch,at 120/5.

In the middle session,after exchanging singles with Rohit for about a dozen overs,a frustrated and tied down MS Dhoni threw his hands at a short and wide Tino Best ball and was caught behind. It was the 52nd over,India had lost their sixth.

Before that over ended,though,Rohit showed his new batting partner just how to do it. Best pitched it short again and Rohit waited on the backfoot. Then he waited some more. The punch through covers was the best shot of the day.

Elegant Ashwin

Ashwin was clearly watching,for when Cottrell gave him a wide one in the 60th he leaned his tall frame back,waited for the ball to nearly pass him before cutting past gully for a boundary. In the following over,when left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul tossed him a juicy half volley,Rohit let the ball come to him and dispatched it past the cover fielder for four. It brought up his half-century.

The word of a recovery must have spread through Kolkata during the tea interval,for when the batsmen took the field,the ground had begun to fill up.

By the time the session ended,it was brimming,quite like the Eden Gardens from the bedtime fables. For them,the pair put on quite a spectacle. It began with Ashwin simultaneously bringing up his fifty and the 100-run stand.

It ended with a Rohit masterclass.

Forced to take the spinners off,Darren Sammy opted for the second new ball. When it was in Cottrell’s hand in the 91st,Rohit crunched three consecutive boundaries to bring up his hundred. And when Sammy took charge three overs later,he was driven for as many more. Soon,stumps were drawn and the day was over. But this time,no one moved. On Thursday,a packed house watched Rohit Sharma simply walk off the field.