On a day of two dazzlingly contrasting halves, R Ashwin conjured the perfect homecoming at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Thursday.  The opening day of India’s first Test of the home season went pear-shaped inside the first hour when, on a strikingly atypical Indian surface with considerable bounce and generous seam movement, Hasan Mahmud ripped the heart out of the top order. Put in by Najmul Hasan Shanto, India slumped to 34-3, rallied briefly through a fourth-wicket alliance of 62 between Yashasvi Jaiswal and comeback man Rishabh Pant, then lost three more wickets to find themselves staring down the barrel at 144-6.

Ash gets big reception

Enter Ashwin, to a rapturous reception from the 10,371-strong gathering at a ground where he cut his teeth in representative cricket. In his last Test outing at this venue, against England in February 2021, the strapping right-hander brought up his fifth Test hundred; three and a half years later, he blazed to a sixth three-figure knock, an authoritative effort to celebrate his 38th birthday, which fell on Tuesday.