Former India batter Aakash Chopra questioned West Indies’ place in Test cricket after their poor show on Day 1 of the first Test against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday, October 2. The team led by Roston Chase was all out for just 162 runs after choosing to bat first, lasting only two sessions.

The West Indies batters could not handle India’s strong bowling attack and lost four wickets in the first hour. Justin Greaves was the only batter to score more than 30 runs as India started their home season in a strong way.

West Indies struggle on Day 1 in Ahmedabad

The West Indies failed with the ball as well. India’s openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal played the new ball with ease. The visitors badly missed the injured Alzarri Joseph and Shamar Joseph. At stumps on Day 1, India stood at 121-2, trailing by only 41 runs in the first innings.

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Former India batter Aakash Chopra said that West Indies lacked strength, especially in batting. He pointed out that most of their top-order batters have an average in the 20s. Only Tagenarine Chanderpaul has an average above 30, but even that is just 31.11. Chopra questioned if such numbers were good enough for Test cricket.

Call for a tier system in Test cricket

Chopra called West Indies’ batting “sub-standard” and said their decline was clear. He added that fans cannot be expected to watch five days of one-sided games. To fix this, he suggested a tier system in the World Test Championship (WTC), with two groups of six teams each, promotion, and relegation.

He noted that while upsets do happen, they are rare. Most matches are one-sided, which hurts Test cricket. Chopra also criticised the empty stands in Ahmedabad, saying the lack of crowd interest shows the problem. He argued that smaller venues should host Tests instead of big cities where people take the matches for granted.