Ahmedabad, November 15: Playing his 99th Test, Virender Sehwag reached his 33rd fifty off 45 deliveries on the first day of the first Test against England at Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
And after reaching his fifty, Sehwag opened his arms further hitting three successive deliveries from Tim Bresnan for two fours and a six over long-on.
Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag brought up their first century stand since Centurion 2010 on the first ball of the 20th over.
Gambhir and Sehwag mixed caution well with aggression to bring up the Indian fifty in the 12th over.
Sehwag was more aggressive of the two and hit three boundaries through the off-side in the seventh over of the Test bowled by James Anderson.
This was after Indian captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bat.
India are playing two spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha. Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh miss out.
For England, Steven Finn and Monty Panesar miss out. Tim Bresnan and Samit Patel make it to the starting eleven. Nick Compton makes his Test debut.
The surface of the pitch is light in colour, not that hard and has a powdery look to it. It will start turning pretty early. As the day progresses, the bounce will get uneven.
After the 4-0 defeat to Australia, away, the Indians have already started their resurrection process with a series victory over New Zealand. They would be looking to continue the winning momentum and start off with a victory at the Motera.
England, on the other hand, will go into the series on the back of a 2-0 series defeat against South Africa at home. They would be looking to regain their lost form and gain an upper hand with a solid start.
The last time these two met in a Test series was in July-August 2011 in England where the English hammered the Indians 4-0. The Indians would be aiming for a revenge this time around.
India have the big advantage of playing at home but they still need to be at their best if they want to exact 'revenge' for the humiliation they suffered on their last trip to England.
The hosts have kept England guessing by not letting them play the best spinners, barring Amit Mishra, in the first two warm-up games.
However, the tactic will bear fruit only if the Indian batsman step up and perform.
It's also going to be a challenge for middle-order batsmen like Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh who would like to settle down in the line-up after the retirements of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
Teams:
India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin, Zaheer Khan, Umesh Yadav, Pragyan Ojha.
England: Alastair Cook (Capt.), Nick Compton, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Samit Patel, Matt Prior, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson.
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