The first day of the Test series between India and Bangladesh was full of twists and turns, but India will be the happier side having posted 339/6 at stumps. Chennai’s local hero Ravichandran Ashwin was in the thick of things, with the bat this time. He and Ravindra Jadeja led a recovery for India after looking in dire straits.
Bangladesh put India in to bat and their new ball bowlers Hasan Mahmud (4 for 58) and Taskin Ahmed got to work straight away. Mahmud had India’s skipper Rohit Sharma edging to second slip in the sixth over and came back to dismiss both Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli to leave India reeling at 34/3 in 10 overs. Yashasvi Jaiswal (56 off 118) did well to hold the fort with wickets falling at the other end. Rishabh Pant (39 off 52), returning to the Test side after 629 days, put up 62 with Jaiswal before Mahmud snared him as well. KL Rahul then played a circumspect knock before both he and Jaiswal fell within the space of 4 deliveries.
And then Ravindra Jadeja (86 off 117 batting) and local lad Ravichandran Ashwin (102 off 112 batting) joined forces. The two wasted no time in getting going and milked the Bangladeshi bowlers. The two were especially severe on their Bangladeshi counterparts – Shakib al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz – after tea. Bangladesh looked clueless against the duo as they scored at more than 5 and a half runs per over. Ashwin scored his second Test century at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. At stumps, neither batter was dismissed and their partnership had swelled to 195.
Here are important stats from day 1 of the India vs Bangladesh Test:
629 – Number of days after which Rishabh Pant played a Test match.
9.75 – Rohit Sharma’s batting average against Bangladesh in Tests. India’s skipper never seems to have gotten going against the Tigers with scores of 6, 6, 21, and, 6 so far.
2 – Rishabh Pant became the second player to score 4000 runs for India as a wicketkeeper in international cricket.
1 – Hasan Mahmud’s figures of 4/58 are the best by a Bangladeshi bowler in India in Tests.
1 – Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin’s ongoing partnership of 195 is now the highest for the seventh wicket at Chepauk. The previous highest was 138 between Ravindra Jadeja and Karun Nair against England in 2016.
2 – Ravichandran Ashwin became the second Indian player to amass 300 runs and 30 wickets at a single ground in Tests. Kapil Dev has previously achieved the feat at both Delhi and Chennai.
5 – Ravichandran Ashwin became the 5th player to score 2 centuries and take 2 fifers at a single ground in Tests. Ashwin had 4 fifers at this ground in addition to registering his second century today. Ian Botham and Gary Sobers – both at Leeds, Chris Cairns at Auckland, and, Kapil Dev at Chennai are the only others.
8 – Ashwin became the 8th player to achieve the double of having scored 6 centuries and taken 6 fifers in Test cricket. The only other Indian on the list is Kapil Dev.