New Delhi, June 6 -- The scoreboard read 368 for 3 at stumps, the heat had crested 40 degrees Celsius by afternoon, and Afghanistan's bowlers had spent the better part of eight and a half hours watching the ball disappear into outfields they could not rotate. That was the state of the only Test between India and Afghanistan at the end of Day 1 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Saturday - a ground hosting its first-ever men's Test, in a city that happens to be where Shubman Gill grew up.

appearing in only their second-ever Test against India, and their 13th in the format overall - squarely under the match.

The morning had not been entirely straightforward. Afghanistan's new-ball pair of Azmatullah Omarzai ...