Pacer Hasan Mahmud emerged the most successful Bangladesh bowler, snaring five wickets for 83 runs.
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

Riding on Ravichandran Ashwin’s century and his 199-run partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, India were all out for a competitive 376 on the second day of the opening Test against Bangladesh here on Friday.

India, who started the day at 339/6, lost all four wickets for the addition of just 37 runs with Jadeja (86) being the first to fall.

Ashwin added 11 more runs to his overnight score of 102 before he was dismissed by Taskin Ahmed for 113.

The Bangladesh pacer grabbed three wickets (3/55) — Jadeja, Ashwin and Akash Deep.

Pacer Hasan Mahmud emerged the most successful Bangladesh bowler, snaring five wickets for 83 runs.

Scoreboard: Day 2

India 1st Innings (Overnight 339/6; 80 overs): Yashasvi Jaiswal c Islam b Rana 56 Rohit Sharma c Shanto b Mahmud 6 Shubman Gill c Das b Mahmud 0 Virat Kohli c Das b Mahmud 6 Rishabh Pant c Das b Mahmud 39 KL Rahul c Hasan b Mehidy 16 Ravindra Jadeja c Das b Taskin 86 Ravichandran Ashwin c Shanto b Taskin 113 Akash Deep c Shanto b Taskin 17 Jasprit Bumrah c Hasan b Mahmud 7 Mohammed Siraj not out 0 Extras (B-18, LB-7, NB-4, W-1) 30 Total (all out in 91.2 overs) 376 Fall of Wickets: 1-14, 2-28, 3-34, 4-96, 5-144, 6-144, 7-343, 8-367, 9-374.

Bangladesh Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 21-4-55-3, Hasan Mahmud 22.2-4-83-5, Nahid Rana 18-2-82-1, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 21-2-77-1, Shakib Al Hasan 8-0-50-0, Mominul Haque 1-0-4-0.

India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal play a shot during Day 1 of the first Test against at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday, September 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

Yashasvi Jaiswal’s fighting half-century helped India recover from an early setback in the first session before R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s rearguard action on day one of the first Test.

Damp wicket

“Initially, I thought the ball was moving and seaming a bit, and the wicket was damp. So, we took our time, but as you can see from the last session, we scored quite well, and I think we are in a good position at the moment,” said Jaiswal at the end of the day’s play.

Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant stitched a 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket, and the opener explained that the duo tried to stay positive despite being in a tricky position.

“I think we were just talking about how we can use our feet, and we were trying if there is a loose ball, we will try to score runs,” the 22-year-old explained.

“I think the wicket was a bit helpful for the bowlers initially, and if you look at the weather, it was a bit cloudy. They bowled well, but at times, they also gave loose balls which allowed us to score runs.”

The opener said he enjoyed the challenging conditions and felt it would prepare him for the future.
“I felt it was amazing to go out there and play in these conditions. It will make me stronger.”

R. Ashwin raising his bat after scoring hundred against Bangladesh during Day 1 of the Test match against Bangladesh at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Thursday, September 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R. Ragu

R. Ashwin has been having wonderful memories at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium recently.

Last month, he guided TNPL side Dindigul Dragons to its maiden title with crucial knocks (69 n.o. off 30 balls, Qualifier 2; 52 off 46 balls, Final).

On Thursday, he made it even more special, completing his sixth Test century and second in as many Tests at this venue.
“This is a ground I completely love to play cricket in. It’s given me a lot of wonderful memories,” Ashwin said to the host broadcaster after the day’s play.

The 38-year-old said the work he had put in during the TNPL helped him on Thursday.

“It helps that I’m coming off a T20 tournament where I worked quite a bit on batting and playing shots.

“On a surface like this with a bit of spice, if you’re going after the ball, you might as well go after it hard like Rishabh (Pant) does,” said Ashwin.

Seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin sparkled on home turf with his sixth Test hundred as he combined with Ravindra Jadeja to steer India out of trouble and post a formidable 339 for six on day one of the first Test against Bangladesh here on Thursday.

Ashwin (102 batting) and Jadeja (86 batting) added 195 runs (174 minutes, 225 balls) for a riveting unbroken seventh wicket stand after young pacer Hasan Mahmud (4/58) reduced India to 144 for six, despite Yashasvi Jaiswal making a solid 56.

The ebb and flow of the day’s proceedings was quite remarkable and mostly revolved around Ashwin, Jadeja and Mahmud, who made his Test debut in March this year and was just three games old in the format before this match.

In a stunning first spell of 5-2-6-3, the 24-year-old Mahmud accounted for the cream of Indian top-order — Rohit Sharma (6), Shubman Gill (0) and Virat Kohli (6) — before snapping Rishabh Pant’s return to Test cricket (39 off 52 balls) in the initial moments of the second session.

KL Rahul, another Indian batter who is re-entering the Indian Test establishment, fell for 16 to off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz as fortune’s pendulum stayed firmly in Bangladesh’s quarter.

But then came the two gladiators who know Chepauk like the back of their hand — Ashwin by birth and Jadeja through his long association with the Chennai Super Kings.

One more wicket at that stage would have extended the dominance of Bangladesh, but such thoughts hardly disturbed Ashwin and Jadeja.

Ashwin went off the blocks with a flurry of boundaries, a firm validation of his oh-so-smooth timing born out of fluent hand movement through shots and precise footwork.

There was this ramp shot off Mahmud, who tried to rattle Ashwin with a short-pitched delivery that climbed onto his body.

But the veteran player arched himself back ever so slightly to gain space to execute the ramp over the slip — fabulous in conceptualisation and execution.

At times, he scored at a strike rate in excess of 100 and was not hesitant to travel the more uncultured way. A slog sweep that went for six over mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Shakib Al-Hasan testified that.

Jadeja was a tad different in his approach. Sensing that Ashwin was in good touch, the left-hander had the simple job of keeping his end going and he did that with minimum fuss.

A past master in operating from behind the giant shadows of superstars, Jadeja looked extremely comfortable doing that once more, providing the assurance Ashwin needed.

But there were moments, the showman in Jadeja came forth and Shakib was the aggrieved party, getting hammered for three fours.

Bangladesh’s star of the day Mahmud, too was not spared as Jadeja, who raised his fifty off 73 balls, played a drag-pull off the pacer to send him for a six.

Other times, he wing-heeled across the pitch for those ones and twos to keep the Bangladesh bowlers frustrated.

The spectators eventually witnessed the moment that they had been waiting for when Ashwin reached the hundred with a single off Shakib, and they welcomed it with applause, cheers and loud bugling.

It was his second consecutive hundred at his home ground after going past the three-figure mark here against England in 2021. And it could not have come at a better time as well.

But before the epic fightback, the Indian innings resembled a crumbling rampart. It’s not often that a team winning the toss would elect to bowl first here as that translates into a fourth-innings chase.

But Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto bit the bullet while going against the trend, and was rewarded for it too.

Rohit, who was saved by DRS when he was on 1, was the first to depart.

The Indian skipper had little choice other than playing a wobble seam delivery that came at him on a tight angle as he edged to Shanto at second slip.

Gill lasted just eight balls but he would count himself unlucky, feathering Mahumd’s down the leg side delivery to stumper Litton Das.

Kohli walked into the Chepauk amid loud cheers and looked confident. But an old failing resurfaced to haunt him.

Mahmud pitched one just short of the length outside the off-stump, and the length was not suitable for a drive.

But the star batter chose to play an expansive one with the ball nestling in Litton’s gloves after taking a healthy edge off his bat.

Jaiswal and Pant added 62 runs for the fourth wicket to temporarily check the free fall before both perished in close succession in the middle session.

Bangladesh might have thought the effort was good enough to keep the home side flat on the ropes, but Ashwin and Jadeja made them wiser as to why it is so tough to keep India on the back-foot at home for long.

Scoreboard:

India 1st Innings: Yashasvi Jaiswal c Shadman Islam b Nahid Rana 56 Rohit Sharma c Najmul Hossain Shanto b Hasan Mahmud 6 Shubman Gill c Litton Das b Hasan Mahmud 0 Virat Kohli c Litton Das b Hasan Mahmud 6 Rishabh Pant c Litton Das b Hasan Mahmud 39 KL Rahul c Zakir Hasan b Mehidy Hasan Miraz 16 Ravindra Jadeja batting 86 Ravichandran Ashwin batting 102

Extras: (B-18, LB-5, NB-4, W-1) 28

Total: (For 6 wkts, 80 overs) 339

Fall of wkts: 1-14, 2-28, 3-34, 4-96, 5-144, 6-144.

Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 15-1-47-0, Hasan Mahmud 18-4-58-4, Nahid Rana 17-2-80-1, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 21-2-77-1, Shakib Al Hasan 8-0-50-0, Mominul Haque 1-0-4-0.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj.

Bangladesh: Shadman Islam, Zakir Hasan, Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Litton Das (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Nahid Rana.

India’s captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli before the first ODI cricket match of a series between India and Sri Lanka, at R Premadasa International Stadium, in Colombo. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer will lead the four teams that will compete in the Duleep Trophy, which will be played from September 5 to 22 in Bengaluru and Anantapur. The BCCI’s senior selection committee announced the squads on Wednesday (August 14, 2024), and the tournament will kickstart the Indian domestic season 2024-25.

Captain Rohit Sharma and veteran Virat Kohli – amid speculations about a rare domestic First Class appearance – have preferred to skip the game and will join the Test squad’s preparatory camp in Chennai ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh, starting September 19. The BCCI statement, while announcing the squads, clarified that the ones who will be picked in the Test squad will be replaced after the first round of games.

Also Read: India can do a hat-trick of Test series triumphs in Australia: Ravi Shastri

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant will return to first-class cricket for the first time in nearly two years since his life-threatening car crash. The wicketkeeper batter’s last red-ball game was in the second Test against Bangladesh in Mirpur in December 2022. Earlier this year, Pant made a sensational recovery to play in the IPL and was also part of the T20 World Cup winning squad. Pant also marked his return to the one-day international set-up in Sri Lanka.

Apart from the Test regulars and performers in last year’s Ranji Trophy, Ishan Kishan – who lost his central contract for not featuring in domestic cricket alongside Shreyas – has also been selected.

The BCCI’s media statement also mentioned that all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation is subject to his clearing the fitness test.

Team A: Shubman Gill (Capt.), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

Team B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Capt.), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).

Team C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Capt.), B. Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.

Team D: Shreyas Iyer (Capt.), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar.