India made 121/2 at stumps on day one in first innings.
West Indies captain Roston Chase won the toss and chose to bat first. Johann Layne and Khary Pierre made their Test debuts for West Indies, while India went in with three spinners and two pacers, with Nitish Kumar Reddy for company.
Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah were all over the West Indies batters as openers Tagenarine Chanderpaul (0) and John Campbell (8) were removed early.
There was little resistance from the West Indies batters, though captain Chase made 24 and Shai Hope made 26 runs. Justin Greaves, the all-rounder, stood tall and scored 32 runs with four fours.
West Indies was bowled out for 162 runs, with Mohammed Siraj starring with 4/40 and Jasprit Bumrah taking 3/42, while Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets.
"I was very excited to bowl on this green-top wicket, something we don't get very often in India in Test cricket. The last time we had such a wicket was against New Zealand in Bengaluru, so I was very excited to bowl on it," Siraj told the media after stumps on Day 1.
While the surface had a lot of green cover in the lead-up to the Test, much of it had been chopped away, but it still gave adequate help with the new ball. Siraj sent the middle stump of West Indies No. 4 Brandon King cartwheeling as the batter raised his arms, and then dismissed skipper Roston Chase with an angled delivery.
“With the wobble seam, the ball either comes in or cuts out. But that delivery kept straightening from the shiny side while I had bowled it with a wobble seam. I was able to execute it the way I had planned. Two balls before, he was hit on the pads. I thought about bowling in the line of the stumps and was able to execute it,” Siraj said about dismissals of Chase and Brandon King.
Mohammed Siraj was the highest wicket-taker with 23 scalps in five Tests on India’s tour of England and admitted that he was confident for the West Indies series, having helped India level the five-Test series in England 2-2.
"I took off for three weeks, then resumed training and bowling and played the India A game. When you play after a long gap, you also learn about your rhythm. It was very hot in Lucknow, but I had a good preparation before the series. I followed up on my rhythm from England tour but I enjoyed this break, which I got after several years.
I had to work hard for these four wickets here as well. Even in England, I had to work hard to get wickets; it's not the case that you can get wickets just like that. No one gave me the fifth wicket (today), I had to take all four with hard work," he said.
India ended day one on 121/2 with KL Rahul on 53* and Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring 36 before falling to Jayden Seales.
(PTI inputs)