India got their 10-week tour of England to an encouraging start as they were placed at 106/1 at the stroke of lunch on day one of a three-day practice match against Leicestershire here today.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan scored a quick-fire unbeaten 55 (86 balls, 11 fours) to propel the score after the visitors had won the toss and elected to bat first. Gautam Gambhir, with a patient unbeaten 21 off 52 balls, was giving him company at the break.
Dhawan opened the innings with Murali Vijay and the duo put on 46 runs for the first wicket. The latter took his time in the middle, facing 51 deliveries in all, trying to play with a straight-bat.
He scored 20 runs and hit three boundaries, before he was out caught by Angus Robson off Anthony Ireland (1-23) while going for a drive.
Gambhir walked in at number three, bringing up the 50-run mark in the 17th over, and along with Dhawan increased the pace of scoring.
They put up 50 runs for the second wicket in just 63 balls, with Dhawan going on to complete his half-century off 79 balls.
At the stroke of lunch, India had crossed the 100-run mark in 27th over, with Dhawan and Gambhir making good use of the perfect bounce in the pitch and the ordinary Leicestershire attack.
India are fielding their entire 18-man squad in this tour game and hence this match doesn't have First-Class status. They will, however, field only 11 players at a given time.
Thus, the players listed for batting in their first innings after Vijay, Dhawan and Gambhir are, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Wriddhiman Saha, Stuart Binny and Ravindra Jadeja.
