On the eve of the first Test against India, Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo had wanted his side to be competitive across the length of the Test. But little would he have expected to be left a disappointed man after just two days of play.
At the end of proceedings on Thursday at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Bangladesh, the home side, after first letting the Indian lower order add 126 runs to the overnight score — finishing on 404 — abjectly surrendered with the bat, reduced to 133 for eight, 271 runs in the red.
On a wicket that appeared to have eased up for batting, especially against the softer ball, Bangladesh displayed very little patience, dragging itself into the pits from where a climb back looks a gargantuan task.
After Mohammed Siraj, with a little help from Umesh Yadav, destroyed the Bangladesh top-order across two spells totalling nine overs (9-1-14-3), Kuldeep Yadav, playing his first Test in 22 months, gave the ball an almighty rip to leave the next set of batters bamboozled (10-3-33-4).
Siraj breathes fire
Siraj, in fact, struck with the very first ball of the innings, having Najmul Hossain caught behind by Rishabh Pant. Umesh, with his skiddy pace, forced Yasir Ali to chop one onto his stumps.
If Umesh is all swish, Siraj is full of macho aggression, and he sings, often in the ear, as Litton Das found out. In his 29-ball stay until then, Litton had played a neat cameo, scoring 24 runs with five fours, including three on the bounce off Umesh.
Siraj let out a few words, later revealed by the pacer himself to be an innocuous line that went “this is not T20 cricket, play sensibly.” The very next ball, Litton didn’t go fully down for a delivery that scooted off the surface and turned back to see the stumps rearranged.
And when Siraj forced debutant opener Zakir Hasan, who had resisted until then, to poke at a delivery that held its line and nick a catch to Pant, Bangladesh was staring down the barrel at 56 for four.
With former Sri Lankan Rangana Herath as its spin bowling coach, Bangladesh would have prepared for the conventional tweakers in R. Ashwin and Axar Patel. But Kuldeep’s unorthodox spin left them dazed.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan stepped out and tried to smother the turn but only managed an edge to Virat Kohli at first slip. Nurul Hasan was caught superbly at short-leg by Shubman Gill before Kuldeep turned one past Mushfiqur Rahim’s inside-edge to trap him leg-before.
It was an ideal second act to his exploits in the morning, wherein he had swept and reverse-swept his way to a career-best Test score (40, 114b, 5x4). Shreyas Iyer fell after adding just four runs to his overnight score, but Kuldeep and Ashwin (58, 113b, 2x4, 2x6) came together for a 92-run eighth wicket partnership to knock the wind out of Bangladesh. By the evening, the host was still not breathing.
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