India's fightback from the brink of all too familiar gloom highlighted the new Team India model. Still very much in its infancy, the mantra of grit, discipline and covering up for each other's mistakes was at the fore after the top and middle order's failure to convert opportunities into sizeable scores. The loss of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - two of India's sheet anchors in the recent past - seemed crippling at one stage with India at a precarious 97-5. However, VVS Laxman, a man who has defied the odds all his life, had a different script in mind. And he had two new foot soldiers in Mahendra Dhoni and Irfan Pathan. Together they not only made sure Sri Lanka couldn't breach Fort India's tentative walls on day one, but in fact gave the home side a slight advantage by close of play.