(Cricket news) It was an absorbing day of Test match cricket as at the end of the day’s play it seems like the honours are even. Bangladesh would be the happier side marginally after it looked like Pujara and Shreyas Iyer were taking the game away from them. India won the toss and chose to bat under the captaincy of KL Rahul who is subsequently captaining his first test match. The batter fell to loose shots, thereby failing to convert starts. They were in trouble for 48/3, Bangladesh were all over the visitors but a counterattack from Pant started the comeback and that was further solidified by a century stand between Pujara and Iyer.
The Indian No.3 was very unfortunate to miss out on a deserving century while Iyer’s knock has been very aggressive as he is riding his luck. Taijul was the standout bowler for Bangladesh, drying up the runs and also getting the ball to spin. Ebadot also bowled with real venom but didn’t get the luck he deserved. The track hasn’t been easy to bat on, but with the ball turning on the first day itself and variable bounce on display, things could get tougher as the game progresses.
Pujara’s wait for his next Test century will have to wait as the Sauashtra batter played a terrific knock under pressure. India were in a spot of bother at 48/3 little over an hour into the day’s play but he played the perfect second fiddle to Rishabh Pant who was playing the role of the aggressor in the partnership and then took the lead in the 149-run stand with Shreyas Iyer. But he fell to brilliant ball by Taijul Islam as he was dismissed for 90 unfortunately.
Shreyas Iyer continued his good form by playing an aggressive knock as he will hold the key to India getting a total somewhere near 350. He ended the day 82* as the Mumbai batsmen will look to convert this start into a big hundred. Virat’s bad form in test cricket continued as he was trapped by Taijul Islam for a straight forward LBW decision for the umpire. India need to post a big total and hope that the two spinners in Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav give a tough time to the Bangladeshi batsman on day 2. For India to qualify for the World Test Championship, they will need to win at least 5 of their next 6 test matches
