“It’s been six overs with the new ball and not a single bouncer from the West Indies pacers. What is happening, Ian? What happened to the West Indies pace attack?” asked Gavaskar. The former India captain’s tongue-in-cheek remark took Bishop by surprise, who remained silent for a brief period.

Seeing Bishop taking some time to reply to Gavaskar’s jibe, fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle intervened. “He’s in the commentary box, it’s a bit tough to bowl a bounce from here,” Bhogle said with a laugh.

This allowed Bishop some time to frame a reply. “I’m sure we will see one from the likes of Seales, ” said the former Windies pacer.

Seales and Phillips, however, kept Bishop waiting as the visitors didn’t bowl a single short-pitched delivery in the entire first session.

The West Indies teams of yesteryears possessed some of the most lethal fast bowlers in the world. They hardly pitched anything in the batter’s half of the pitch, especially with the new ball. Gavaskar was one of the very few batters of world cricket who got a lot of success against the fearsome West Indies pacers. It was unimaginable for him to see the current fast bowling line-up of West Indies not attempting a single bouncer with the new ball to unsettle the Indian openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

The left and right opening combination of Rahul and Jaiswal looked fairly comfortable against Seales and Phillips after Gill won the toss and elected to bat first. It was his first positive result at the coin toss in seven attempts.

Seales and Phillips were consistent with their lines and lengths, but they never threatened Rahul and Jaiswal. There was no real thrust or hostility, which came naturally to fast bowlers from the Caribbean islands.

Strong favourites India come in unchanged after their innings victory in the opening Test.

“The wicket looks good, we want to pile on the runs,” Gill said on a bright and sunny morning in the national capital.

The West Indies, led by Roston Chase, are looking for resurrection as they face a second successive Test whitewash after losing 3-0 to Australia at home recently.

They are a pale shadow of the team that once dominated cricket.

The tourists made two changes, with wicketkeeper-batsman Tevin Imlach and pace bowler Anderson Phillip coming in for Brandon King and Johann Layne.

“We think Anderson Phillip is good with the new ball and Imlach is a good batter against spin,” said Chase.