Opener Lokesh Rahul scored a fighting century as India recovered from early jitters to post 319 for six in their first innings on Day 1 of the second Test against Sri Lanka, in Colombo, on Thursday.
Electing to bat, the visitors lost opener Murali Vijay (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (4), surprisingly promoted to number three, with only 12 runs on the board before young Rahul (108) and skipper Virat Kohli (78) revived the innings in an attractive 164-run partnership for the third wicket.
Rohit Sharma also chipped in with a strokeful 79, but was dismissed at the fag end of an engrossing opening day's play that saw both the teams share the honours.
In registering his second Test hundred Rahul faced 190 balls, hitting 13 boundaries and a six in the process.
Kohli, who looked good for another Test ton scored 78 off 107 balls, which was inclusive of eight boundaries and a six.
India’s captain was unlucky to miss out on his 12th Test hundred after rival skipper Angelo Mathews took a smart diving catch off Rangana Herath's bowling.
Under-fire Rohit Sharma, however, justified the immense faith shown in him by the team management as he somewhat redeemed himself with a stylish knock after failing in both innings of the 63-run defeat at Galle.
The Indian team management's decision to try out Stuart Binny (10) as an all-rounder did not work well as the Karnataka player looked totally out of sorts during his 40-ball knock before playing a terrible shot which brought about his downfall.
Play was called off immediately after Sharma's dismissal. At stumps, Wriddhiman Saha was unbeaten on 19.
Earlier, Kohli won the toss and decided to bat on a hard strip that had some bounce and carry.
Vijay, who missed the last Test due to hamstring injury, had a forgettable comeback as Dhamika Prasad trapped him leg-before with a delivery that came in a shade after pitching in line with the stumps.
In order to shield Rohit from the new ball, the dependable Rahane was sent in at the crucial number 3 position and he started off with a boundary.
However, Prasad got him with an out-swinger as he tried to drive on the up and was caught in the slips by Dimuth Karunaratne.
Skipper Kohli then joined Rahul and the duo started the repair work cautiously.
Rahul got a reprieve when he was on 11 and made the most of it. In the first session of the day, he was lucky as Jehan Mubarak failed to take a regulation catch at gully off Chameera as soon as he was introduced in the eighth over.
India went to lunch at 97 for two as the Kohli-Rahul pair added 85 runs by then.
Post-lunch, the pair carried on their partnership in a bid to build the Indian innings further. Kohli registered his 11th Test fifty off 63 balls immediately after the break and in doing so also brought up the 100-mark for India in the 28th over.
While he looked fluent until the landmark, he suddenly appeared edgy for a brief period of play thereafter. He scored only two runs in 32 minutes during this passage of play, and it was left to Rahul to keep the scorecard ticking.
The youngster didn't disappoint and reached his first Test fifty off 94 balls. Their 100-run partnership had earlier come in the 29th over.
At the other end, the captain broke the shackles with two consecutive boundaries off Chameera and was looking good for more. But, just then, against the run of play, he fell to a stupendous, one-handed, diving catch to the right by Mathews off the bowling of Herath in the 44th over.
As he walked off dejected, Rohit walked in and negotiated the 8.3 overs remaining before tea. He started off nervously, pushing and prodding the ball, but hit a six and a four off Herath in the penultimate over before tea.
India made three changes for this second Test, with Vijay coming in for the
injured Shikhar Dhawan. Umesh Yadav and Stuart Binny replaced Varun Aaron and Harbhajan Singh respectively in the playing eleven.
Sri Lanka also made one change, with fit-again Dushmantha Chameera coming in for the injured Nuwan Pradeep.
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