In a few years when you look back at the Eden Gardens Test match of November 2013, it will not just be remembered as Sachin Tendulkar's 199th and penultimate Test of his ridiculous career, but also as the game which saw two -- hopefully in that future - superstars make their debuts in sterling fashion.
All the attention, and rightly so, was on Tendulkar and his final Test match in Kolkata. Crowds, over the three days - unfortunately, only three days -- came in with one thought in their minds: when can we see the Little Master bat and I hope he gets a hundred.
However, as the match progressed in the first innings, one fast bowler, or extremely brisk medium pacer - depending on your preference - raised a few eyebrows and brought out a smile or two. Shami was not just bowling at a fair clip - anything consistently over 130 and nearing 140 km is a fair clip for Indian bowlers - he was also reversing the ball.
That, apart from Zaheer Khan, is so rarely seen from Indian bowlers nowadays. If you are born in Pakistan, then reverse-swinging the delivery is in your blood, but somehow that art gets lost just a few miles down the road.
Those four wickets in the first innings were impressive, but not jaw-dropping, so everyone moved on to the real show - Tendulkar coming in to bat during India's first innings.
That, though, would last only a few deliveries as a poor decision put paid to those hopes, leaving another debutant, one who had waited six years for his opportunity to shine for India in white, to grab the headlines.
Rohit Sharma has always been an outstanding talent; but then talent can only get you so far - just ask Vinod Kambli.
There have been such positive signs in his one-day cricket that MS Dhoni could not overlook the elegant batsman's form, and just had to pick him over an unlucky Ajinkya Rahane as India chose to play with six batsmen over five bowlers.
A masterstroke like no other it proved to be. Sharma, not only made a century -- a lot of people have done it in their debut - but a century under pressure, when India were staring at the real possibility of conceding a lead to the West Indies - now that is worth its weight in gold, diamonds, platinum and a couple more precious gems.
Yes, the bowling attack wasn't anywhere near the best in the world, and the match was being played at home - but then you cannot have everything, and this 177 was just as good as they come for a batsman making his debut, and rightly Sharma was awarded the man of the match.
So, after that stunning hundred, which also produced the highest ever partnership for the seventh wicket by India, with the help of the awesome R Ashwin, it was now down to the India bowlers to finish things off - there were also quite a few fans out there hoping the West Indies batsmen would come to the fore and force India to bat in the second innings, with it opening up the possibility of Tendulkar batting again.
But, Shami had other ideas. After a brisk opening from the batsmen, Shami made the ball swing to his tune, leaving the West Indies players quite clueless.
If there were any doubts about Shami's capability of reverse-swinging the old ball time and again - questions were raised in the first innings, because the ball started to swing only after it was replaced midway - it was quelled emphatically.
Not only was he swinging it at will, he was swinging it in the right areas. The ball just kept zoning into middle stump like a precision missile, with more often than not, that particular stump flying towards Dhoni after being hit by the ball with some venom.
That spell from Shami, who finished with nine wickets in the match for the best figures by an Indian pace bowler making his debut, was perhaps the most heartening aspect of the Test match, because they don't come around too often from Indian fast bowlers.
Now, both Sharma and Shami need to be careful not to get carried away. History is filled with debutants who sparkle in their first match, and then fade quicker than a vampire at the sign of dawn.
Hopefully, in those few years gone by, when we do look back at this Test, the feeling will be: Ah yes, the Test match that made Sharma and Shami into champions!
