Ravichandran Ashwin is on his course to bag his 10th ‘Player of the Match’ award in Test cricket. The off-spinner has already shined with the bat; having scored a glorious hundred at his home in the first innings, the veteran finally turned up with the ball as well. Ashwin got lucky to begin with, getting Zakir Hasan caught at midwicket. But, then he bowled an absolute pearler to get rid of a well-set Mominul Haque, and then, to end the day, he got Mushfiqur Rahim caught at mid-on as the experienced batter took the aggressive intent way too far. However, the prelude to Ashwin‘s brilliance was equally brilliant.
Pant & Gill pile on the pain
It was a batting masterclass from Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill. The duo put on a 167-run partnership, taking a leaf out of Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s book. The lead was already over 300 before the day even started, and they piled on the pain, scoring hundreds with ease.
Pant hadn’t played a Test match in 20 months, and it never looked like it wasn’t in action for over a year. He’d missed out on a big one in the first innings but this time around, he wasn’t willing to miss out. He leveled MS Dhoni as the Indian wicketkeeper with the most Test hundreds as he brought up his 6th century in 123 balls before getting out for 109.
Gill was ahead of Pant on the scoreboard for most of his innings, but as the southpaw was going ballistic, he was inching towards his 5th Test century, and he got there eventually in 161 balls. This was Gill’s fifth fifty-plus score in the last eight innings, and the 25-year-old has now solidified his position at number three.
IND vs BAN 1st Test: Brief Scores
India 1st innings: 376/10 (Ravichandran Ashwin 113, Ravindra Jadeja 86; Hasan Mahmud 83/5, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 77/1)
Bangladesh 1st innings: 149/10 (Shakib Al Hasan 32, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 27; Jasprit Bumrah 50/4, Ravindra Jadeja 19/2)
India 2nd innings: 287/4 d (Shubman Gill 119*, Rishabh Pant 109; Mehidy Hasan Miraz 103/2, Nahid Rana 21/1)
Bangladesh 2nd innings: 158/4 (Najmul Hossain Shanto 51*, Shadman Islam 35; Ravichandran Ashwin 63/3, Jasprit Bumrah 18/1)
