Najmul Hossain Shanto (Twitter)
The first day of the second Test between India and Bangladesh saw only 35 overs of play before bad light and subsequent rain forced the umpires to take the players off the field. The entirety of Day 2 was spent with the ground being covered as well as super soppers being operated, even during those time intervals of little to no rain.
As frustrating as it was for the supporters who had made their way to the venue as well as had stayed fixated on their seats hoping for action, skipper of Bangladesh, Najmul Hossain Shanto, was quick to express his disappointment as well. Besides, he also elaborated on the track and noted that it played out pretty well for Bangladesh on Day 1 of the Kanpur Test.
“As a player, it’s very frustrating (the rain). The game started after a lot of difficulties (on Friday), then we got to play for a while, and then it got stopped again. There was no play today. Overall, it’s really frustrating as a player. But we have nothing to do with it. It’s not in our control. But it would feel better if there was some play,” Shanto was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
“The wicket was decent. I think the bigger challenge was to play through the (numerous) breaks on and off. The rain remains a continuous threat with batters having to bat keeping that in mind, which is difficult. Apart from that, I can tell the wicket so far has been pretty good. We will not know how challenging it will be to play on day three and four because it is not getting enough sunshine,” the Bangladesh skipper continued.
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If we can have two big partnerships, we can be in a good position: Shanto
Furthermore, Shanto didn’t read too much into Bangladesh losing their top order and instead expounded on what his side needed to achieve to have a more favourable command of the game. The forecast for Sunday doesn’t seem promising, and it remains to be seen how both sides will approach the game whenever the match is resumed considering the crucial World Test Championship points involved.
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“I think we lost one extra wicket. We had a good start. I won’t say we are in a bad position, given the wicket we are playing on. We have a few more batters. If we can have two big partnerships, we can be in a good position. But at this moment, I think it’s balanced right now,” added Shanto.