KANPUR: Openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag hit superb half-centuries as India reached 131-0 at lunch on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka here on Tuesday.

Left-hander Gambhir was batting on 59 while Sehwag was on 70 after Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat at the Green Park stadium.

Gambhir hit seven fours in his 54-ball knock on way to his 11th Test half-century and fourth against the islanders, while Sehwag clobbered two sixes and eight boundaries in his 73-ball innings.

The Indian openers did well to negotiate the challenging early-morning conditions and avoid a repeat of the drawn first Test in Ahmedabad which saw the hosts being reduced to 32-4 early into the first session.

Sehwag, who was dropped in the slips even before he had opened his account, overcame a subdued start to hit his trademark shots against both the quicks and the spinners on way to his 20th Test fifty.

He twice drove fast bowler Angelo Mathews to mid-off for fours before smashing a full toss from unorthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis to the deep mid-wicket fence for the first six of the match.

Gambhir was equally aggressive in his shot-making, forcing Rangana Herath off the attack after he hit the left-arm spinner for three fours in his opening over.

Mendis, who had picked 26 wickets in Sri Lanka's 2-1 Test victory at home last year, looked particularly out-of-sorts, conceding 42 runs off his five overs.

Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan also failed to trouble the Indian pair during the three overs that he has bowled so far.

The Indians earlier replaced Ishant Sharma with paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who played his last Test at this very venue 19 months ago, and awarded Test cap to left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.

The visitors, seeking their first-ever Test win on Indian soil, brought in Mendis as the third spinner in place of injured paceman Dammika Prasad.