The 1st Test between India and Bangladesh is over with India leading 1-0. After 5 days, India prevailed with a 188-run difference. The 2nd Test begins on December 22 in Mirpur.
On the first day at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, KL Rahul who was standing in for Rohit Sharma as captain won the toss and opted to bat. Sharma injured his thumb during the second ODI between India and Bangladesh and pulled out of the team.
With India batting first, a 149-run partnership between Shereyas Iyer and Cheteshwar Pujara help push India’s score at the end of the first day to 278/6. Pujara scored 90 runs and was bowled out by Taijul Islam. Iyer was unbeaten for 82 along with Ravichandran Ashwin.
The duo continued on the 2nd day with Ravichandran hitting a half century before being bowled out by Mehidy Hasan. Hasan was also involved in ending India’s innings when he got his 4th wicket when he bowled out Mohammed Siraj. India ended their innings with 404 runs.
Bangladesh opening order of Najmul Shanto, Zakir Hasan and Yasir Ali were bowled out for a total score of 24 runs. The team struggled to get going with Mushifiqur Rahim’s 28 runs being the highest score for Bangladesh on the day. They ended with 133/8 for the day and had a mountain to chase.
On day three, Bangladesh added another 17 runs before Axar Patel ended their innings when he bowled out Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Bangladesh ended their 1st innings with a score of 150 runs.
India opened their 2nd innings strongly with KL Rahul and Shubman Gill hitting a 70-run partnership before Gill was taken out by Khaled Ahmed’s bowling. Pujara came on and continue his fine form from the 1st innings.
Both Gill and Pujara formed a 113-run partnership that pushed India above the 150 runs mark with only 1 wicket fall. Both players hit a century with Gill scoring 110 runs and Pujara scoring 102 runs.
When India reached 258/2, they declared their innings over as they were up by 512 runs. Bangladesh took to the stumps and were hoping for a better performance from their batters in comparison to their 1st innings.
Openers Najmul Shanto and Zakir Hasan did not disappoint. They formed a 124-run partnership to reduce the runs needed to 388. However, the Indian bowlers led by Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav managed to contain the opening order.
It wasn’t until Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan came on that Bangladesh started to gain momentum again. His 84-runs helped push the team’s score to 320 runs with 342 runs to chase.
However it was a mountain to high to climb for the Bangladesh team and India won by 188-runs. They will be hoping for a better performance in Test 2 as they look to improve on their position in the WTC ranking.
With this win, India now need another 3 wins from their remaining 4 Test matches to guarantee themselves a place in the World Test Cricket finals in 2023.