Shubman Gill breaks a massive toss curse in Delhi Test

The first ball of the India vs West Indies 2nd Test in Delhi hadn’t even been bowled yet, and celebrations had already started in the Indian camp. No, India wasn’t jumping the gun and celebrating a win out of overconfidence… We’re not Bangladesh, after all.

What actually happened was that Shubman Gill won his first toss as India skipper. Since becoming captain, he had lost his first six tosses, and when he finally got lucky on his seventh try, even Gautam Gambhir and Jasprit Bumrah were seen congratulating him.

Interestingly, India had lost 15 tosses in a row until the 5th and final Test against England. But their luck with the coin has turned since then. Out of the 9 matches played after the England series, Team India has now won 5 tosses.

But toss wins or not, this team clearly doesn’t let the coin decide their fate. That’s evident from the fact that under Gill’s captaincy, India has lost only 2 out of the 6 Tests they've played, and those losses also came in England.

India won the toss and chose to bat first in Delhi and went in with an unchanged playing XI, Many contemplated that Jasprit Bumrah might be rested for this Test, but he continued to be a part of the XI.

"We will bat first; the wicket looks good to bat on Day 1. Consistency is the key for us-to be able to repeat performances and to be able to have the same intensity in every match that we play. That's something that we often speak about, and that's what we are trying to look for in this Test match as well. Honestly, not much. I'm still the same person, but definitely have more responsibilities now, but I like responsibilities and a very exciting future for me (on being elevated across all formats). We have got the same team," Gill said at the toss.

Meanwhile, West Indies made two changes and brought in Tevin Imlach and Anderson Phillip in place of Brandon King and Johann Layne.

"We were batting first as well; the pitch looks dry, so not too worried. Obviously, we had some meetings and some deep discussions as batters. And something that came up in the meetings was that we want to really try to bat the whole day and bat 90 overs. That's something that we're really looking forward to doing. I just think we need to stay positive, in the present, and just play every ball on merit and not worry about what's happened before. Yeah, two changes: King is out and Johann Layne is out; Tevin Imlach is in and Anderson Phillip is in. We just take that Anderson Phillip with the new ball; he's a good new-ball bowler. We think we need to strike early with the new ball. And also Imlach-he's a good player of spin, coming from Guyana and used to these kind of low, turning tracks. So we think he'll be a good fit for this wicket," said Windies skipper Roston Chase.

Tagenarine Chanderpaul, John Campbell, Alick Athanaze, Shai Hope, Kevon Imlach (wk), Roston Chase (c), Justin Greaves, Khary Pierre, Jomel Warrican, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Also watch: West Indies' secret plan to counter India's spin web in Delhi