Key Points

Gill’s 129 not out, coming off 196 balls with the help of 16 fours and two sixes, is now his highest individual score in home Tests, surpassing the 128 he made against Australia in Ahmedabad in March 2023. The declaration came just after Dhruv Jurel was castled by West Indies skipper Roston Chase for 44, as India felt being powered to 518 — thanks to a dominant batting display led by Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who made 175 — was enough to put a tired West Indies line-up into a daunting chase.

Resuming from 318/2, India added 200 runs before pulling the plug on their innings. Apart from Gill and Jaiswal, contributions from Jurel, B Sai Sudharsan (87) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (43) ensured India maintained momentum throughout their batting. Gill’s innings was marked by control and crisp timing; after reaching his fifty he accelerated with precise strokeplay to finish unbeaten.

India’s focus will now shift to their spin trio — Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar — to exploit signs of variable bounce and turn on the black-soil pitch. A few deliveries, including the one that dismissed Jurel, kept low, while others turned sharply, thus offering encouragement to the hosts’ spinners. West Indies, who failed to bat out 50 overs in either innings of the previous Test in Ahmedabad, will hope to show greater resilience this time around, with the pitch still being more conducive to batting than it was at the previous venue.

Day two began with heartbreak for India as Jaiswal’s bid for a third Test double hundred ended in a bizarre run-out in the second over. After driving a full ball to mid-off, Jaiswal took off for a quick single, but Gill had said no to that call. By then, Tagenarine Chanderpaul fired a direct hit to the keeper’s end, and though Jaiswal made a desperate turn after being more than halfway down the pitch, keeper Tevin Imlach disturbed the stumps swiftly.

Reddy, promoted to number five to get some game time, survived a close lbw shout on the second ball he faced from Jayden Seales before square-driving him for four. Reddy had some luck again when he went hard on a drive that raced past second slip for four, even as Gill found boundaries easily via flicks, drives and slashes, bringing up his fifty with a superbly timed flick through mid-wicket for four off Seales.

Luck stayed with Reddy when Johnson Charles Philip (Philip) dropped his catch at mid-off off Jomel Warrican’s bowling, giving him a reprieve on 20. Reddy made the most of it by launching Warrican for two sixes and a four, making up for earlier hesitation against spinners. A calm Gill drew huge cheers from the crowd by leaning into a half-volley from Greaves and driving through wide of mid-off for four, before thumping him through the gap at extra cover for another boundary.

Reddy fell seven runs short of his fifty when he attempted to clear Warrican with a slog sweep but holed out to long-on. With Gill and Jurel looking solid, India won yet another session before the lunch break. After that, as West Indies’ bowling continued to be unthreatening, Gill swept Pierre for four, while Jurel cut through the leg-side to pick quick boundaries. Gill then easily swept Chase for four before reaching his fifth Test century as India’s captain in 177 balls, with a three-run cut through cover that drew appreciation from the Delhi crowd.

After his century, Gill flicked through the gears by clubbing Chase for six, then continued to collect boundaries through sweeps and cuts. Jurel, who had impressed with his ability to pick lengths quickly, got a life on 39 but went for a pull on an overpitched Chase delivery and was bowled for six runs short of his fifty. As Jurel walked off, Gill followed soon after as India declared in the middle of the second session, inviting West Indies to bat with 43 overs remaining in the day.

Brief scores: India 518/5 in 134.2 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 175, Shubman Gill 129 not out; Jomel Warrican 3-98, Roston Chase 1-83) against West Indies.

- IANS