Jasprit Bumrah celebrates with team-mates after dismissing Taskin Ahmed on the second day of the first cricket Test in Chennai.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: In the 13 Tests India have played Bangladesh previously, they’ve won 11 of them and drawn the remaining two. Although the Tigers have tasted some wins over the Indians in white-ball cricket, the gulf in class in red-ball, with no disrespect, is as massive as the geographical sizes of the two nations.
Bangladesh may hate to admit it and probably feel it’s unfair but just two days into the eighth series against India, it’s seemingly evident the gap has not narrowed down by much. After R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja staged an incredible fightback through a counter-attacking 199-run stand for the seventh wicket on Thursday, their pace bowling colleagues ran roughshod on Friday to leave India in a dominant position at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Jasprit Bumrah, easily the best all-format fast bowler in the world right now, yet again delivered a performance of pure genius, bagging 4/50, while Mohammed Shami replica Akash Deep (2/19) and Mohammed Siraj (2/30) bagged two wickets apiece as India shot out Bangladesh for 149 in 47.1 overs to take a massive 227-run lead.
That lead was extended to 308 runs at stumps as India (81/3) opted to bat for a second time instead of enforcing the follow-on, Shubman Gill scoring a fine 33 with Rishabh Pant looking good on 12.
Resuming on overnight score of 339/6, India failed to build on their innings in the morning and lasted a mere 11.2 overs as experienced Bangladesh pacer Taskin Ahmed cleaned up the tail with a superb spell of 6-3-8-3. In a way it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for India as their pacers still had some amount of juice in the wicket that could be extracted upon.
Bumrah did so in the very first over, castling Shadman Islam with a peach. After testing his defence the first five balls over the wicket (all were out-swingers), he came around for the last one and just angled it in. Shadman shouldered arms thinking the ball will go straight but to his dismay it just cut in enough to clip his stumps. India were on board early on itself and they just steamrolled Bangladesh after that with first-change Akash Deep taking charge.
Compared to senior pro Shami for his bowling style and the balding mane, Akash Deep, playing in just his second Test, produced two back-to-back rippers to show he’s not just a lookalike but truly belongs to the big stage. He castled Zakir Hasan and Mominul Haque — both left-handers — with superb in-swingers, both batters guilty of lack of footwork.
At 22/3, Bangladesh were in deep trouble and things just went from bad to worse for them with another two quick strikes. Siraj had skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto caught at slip and Bumrah got the seasoned Mushfiqur Rahim to edge, Bangladesh in dire straits at 40/5. It was a test of patience and perseverance as Bumrah and Siraj just kept bowling one good ball after another and both Shanto and Rahim failed the examination.
Former skipper, the mercurial Shakib Al Hasan, and the equally dangerous then went about steadying the ship in unforgiving Chennai heat. Although naturally attacking batters, they shelved all the big shots as the need of the hour was defence rather than attack. They nicely thwarted spinners Ashwin and Jadeja to give Bangladesh a semblance of hope.
India just stuck to the basics during that period. They kept going at the duo relentlessly, well aware the pressure will force one or even both of them into committing errors. Litton was the first to fall prey, slog-sweeping Jadeja to end up getting caught in the deep in the 29th over.
This opened the floodgates for India as Jadeja removed Shakib in the very next over. The tail wagged a bit but it still wasn’t enough.