This was West Indies' day. They would have accepted India at 275 for 6 upon losing the toss. Yet you wonder if they have not damaged their chances of winning this Test by not picking a specialist spinner, a step that has never ever been taken at the Eden Gardens in 68 years. Because of a show of discipline among the pace bowlers, and the absence of it among the Indian batsman, it appears that the move has worked. But this is an unused pitch, and without much grass on it. As it takes more turn and the bounce becomes more uneven – there is evidence of that already – Carl Hooper could find himself bowling far more than he might like to. And as back-up he would have to look to the even more part-time dibbly-dobblies of Chris Gayle or Ramnaresh Sarwan.

Viv Richards, the chairman of selectors, said on television during tea that pace has been the traditional West Indian strength and they must allow it to blossom again. Richards was probably speaking from experience; when captaining at the Eden Gardens in 1987-88, he included offspinner Clyde Butts, who responded with 0 for 122.

Admittedly, this squad does not have matchwinning spinners, but they would have provided variety. Gareth Breese's figures in Chennai (2 for 108 off 26 overs and 0 for 27 off 5) made him look far worse than he bowled. Fact is that, moments after his third ball in international cricket was sent soaring into the stands by Virender Sehwag, Breese should have had his man caught at short leg, but a simple chance was dropped. A few overs later, a top-edged sweep from Sehwag fell short of long leg. At times Breese was able to defeat the Indians in flight, which is something of an achievement against the best players of spin in the world.

In Mahendra Nagamootoo, Hooper had a good defensive option, and potentially an attacking one if the pitch misbehaves. Ravi Shastri said in his newspaper column this morning that West Indies must play both spinners. That would have been going overboard; but they certainly should have played one.

For India, it was a day of wasted opportunities. Each one of the top six looked good for a century, but only one of them got past fifty. VVS Laxman looked the best of them all. He set about appeasing all those who had missed the free-stroking Laxman as he cut the frills in gritty rearguard actions alongside the tail. Today, he was letting it flow like he used to. He seemed to know where every ball would land, and where he would hit them all.

Such was Laxman's fluency that it seemed to have rubbed off on Sanjay Bangar, who suddenly began to swirl his wrists and find the gaps. For one delicious hour after tea, there were two Laxmans batting at the Eden Gardens and it made a fine sight. Bangar's strike-rate, which had flickered between 20 and 25 for most of the time, ultimately ended up at almost 40.

In a day dominated by 30s or 40s, Bangar's 77 was worth more than the runs indicate. He tends to take up lots and lots of deliveries, but as long as he makes them count for decent scores, there can be no condemning him.

Rahul Bhattacharya is assistant editor of Wisden.com in India.

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