IND vs BAN, 1st Test: Indian pace pack ensures host stays on top after second day

After India added 37 runs to its overnight score, Bangladesh was thrust back into the cauldron as Bumrah and Akash Deep’s fury was turned on them even before they could retire for a lunch break.

India’s Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after taking the wicket of Hasan Mahmud on Friday. | Photo Credit: Ragu R / The Hindu

If it had fallen upon the old shoulders of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to expiate the indiscretions of the top-order on the opening day, Jasprit Bumrah and his burgeoning pace pack ensured the duo didn’t have to overexert their bowling arm on the second day of the first Test between India and Bangladesh at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.

After India added 37 runs to its overnight score and Ashwin walked off to a standing ovation to temporarily curtain Bangladesh’s frustration, the visitor was thrust back into the cauldron as Bumrah and Akash Deep’s fury was turned on them even before they could retire for a lunch break in scorching conditions.

Shadman Islam learnt of the perils of pre-empting Bumrah’s thought-process early on when he saw his off-stump rattled from an around-the-wicket angle after being fed the away-swingers on leg-stump.

Though his partner Zakir Hasan was handed a lifeline when Rishabh Pant advised Rohit Sharma from reviewing a leg-before shout, much to Mohammed Siraj’s dismay, Deep displayed his penchant for picking early wickets again, angling the ball into Hasan and Mominul Haque to rearrange the woodwork twice in as many balls.

After the sound of timber rattling sounded the knell for Bangladesh’s top-order, the slip cordon was pressed into action to dismantle the middle-order as the seamers kept hammering away on a good length and moving the ball away.

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An accurate Siraj couldn’t be deprived of a wicket for too long as Najmul Hossain Shanto edged one that was leaving him. Bumrah was back in the act, shaping the ball away very late to square-up Mushfiqur Rahim and find an alert KL Rahul in the cordon.

Just as a typical Bangladeshi rearguard was shaping up, Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan perished to a rush of the blood to the head, a top edge off a sweep and a bottom edge off a reverse-sweep being their undoing, respectively.

They were the only ones to fall prey to India’s spinners, who bowled 21 overs with Ashwin going wicketless in 13. Bumrah and Siraj did the clean-up job, with the former playfully tormenting the tail with the short stuff aimed at the body before spearing in a fiendish yorker to knock Taskin Ahmed over as the bowler let out a sheepish smile.

Nahid Rana took some sheen off that glee with consecutive fours off Bumrah before Siraj beat his swing across the line to hit the stumps and keep Bangladesh 227 runs adrift after the first innings.

Earlier, Jadeja couldn’t add to his overnight score and after leaving the ball well to hand Taskin a maiden in the day’s first over, he tentatively poked in the channel and edged behind.

Deep gave the visitor a reminder of his 18-ball fifty in domestic cricket, pouncing on any whiff of width outside off-stump and struck four boundaries in quick time.

Both Ashwin and Deep fell trying to up the ante before Hasan Mahmud fittingly completed his five-wicket haul when he induced Bumrah’s outside edge to register the best figures by a Bangladeshi in Tests on Indian soil.

The visiting pacers had their moment against when Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal couldn’t resist the temptation outside off-stump as Taskin and Rana nabbed one each. Just as Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were coming into their own against the spinners, the latter was trapped in front played across his pads to Mehidy Hasan Miraz, and didn’t review despite a faint nick.

With 17 wickets falling on just the second day, and India 308 runs ahead, the contest seems to be rushing only one way.