Chennai: Bangladesh’s Nahid Rana with teammates celebrates the dismissal of India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal on the second day of the first Test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (PTI Photo/R Senthilkumar)
Skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto’s dismissal in the second innings summarised Bangladesh’s struggles at Chepauk. Since coming in at No 3 in the final session on Day 3, Shanto had managed to not just resist India’s charge, but also show Bangladesh batsmen a better way to score against the hosts. A sixth Test century, a well-deserved one albeit in a losing cause, was there for the taking. But with still three wickets in hand, having made 82, he committed hara-kiri by choosing to hit Ravindra Jadeja out of the rough patches.
Bangladesh had landed in India on the back of a historic Test series win in Pakistan. But to even compete in India, they had to show the awareness to stay in the game at all points. Prior to the Test, as Sridharan Sriram and Wasim Jaffer had told The Indian Express, getting used to the SG ball would be Bangladesh’s biggest challenge. And over the four days in Chennai, they demonstrated their struggles, especially after landing three powerful blows in the first session on Day 1.
Looking back, Bangladesh would know this Test wasn’t lost in the second innings. It happened with the ball in the second and third sessions on Day 1 when their seamers and spinners lost the plot with R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja pulling off a rescue act. On a damp pitch, once the ball got old, without reverse swing on offer, their line of attack was predictable. Ashwin and Jadeja were hardly troubled.
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja during the first day of the first test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (PTI Photo)
And on Day 2, presented with the best batting conditions, they needed to show the patience levels they showed in Pakistan. In hot conditions, with no assistance for spinners, India were never going to give a spell more than four overs for their pacers. It needed one of their top-order batsmen to grind India’s attack. But with India’s pace pack being relentless, they surrendered meekly.
“We didn’t bat well in the first innings”, Shanto said after the 280-run defeat. “It was a very important phase of the game. We could have been in a better position if we had at least one big top-order partnership. There will always be a challenge for the top order to do well, especially in the first innings. It is important to see how we are coping with it. We are working towards it but we are not getting the desired results,” he added.
The frustrating part for Bangladesh is that in the second innings, they showed it isn’t beyond them. Their openers gave them a steady start which frustrated India’s new ball bowlers. Shanto’s knock didn’t ring alarm bells in the host’s camp, but it made them toil hard. India’s spinners have struggled when coming across batsmen who could sweep them from within the line of the stumps. And as Shanto brought out his sweeps and reverse-sweeps, Ashwin and Jadeja had to look for Plan B.
Though the performance of their attack was relatively better, right through the Test there were questions over Shakib Al Hasan’s fitness. After playing a County fixture for Surrey, the all-rounder had joined the team in Chennai only late Tuesday night and had just one day to get acclimatised to the conditions. In a Test where he ended up having his most expensive figures (8-0-50-0 & 13-0-79-0), Shakib’s fitness was a big talking point.
On air, when Shakib didn’t bowl for a major part of the morning session on Day 3, Murali Kartik said the all-rounder had informed him about a discomfort on his index finger. However, Bangladesh’s batting coach David Hemp claimed they were unaware of it. Having taken the field with three pacers, a lot was riding on their two all-rounders Shakib and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, but both struggled to bowl with the SG-ball. Their pace attack, which is thin on experience, couldn’t find reverse-swing which meant it was all too easy for India’s batsmen to find runs once the ball got soft.
Despite the heavy loss, heading to Kanpur, Bangladesh have reasons to feel optimistic. Thanks to the black soil content, the Green Park pitch has been among the slower ones in India. With low bounce also on offer, Bangladesh would feel the conditions are similar to what they find back home in Mirpur. But the question is, having opted for a seamer-friendly surface in Chennai, whether India would do the same in Kanpur.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 22-09-2024 at 20:27 IST
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