It’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s world, and we are just living in it. The duo are probably the best spinners in the world at the moment, but they are more than that. They aren’t just wizards with the ball but can outdo a batter on their day. Today was the day they showed why they are rated so highly worldwide that they aren’t the world’s best Test all-rounders for no reason.
On a lively Chennai pitch, Team India were 144/6. Stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had scored 6 each. Both had basically arrived in the middle at the same point of time as Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul departed in the space of four balls. The only good thing was that the pacers weren’t getting as much assistance, but spinners had come into the game with Mehidy Hasan Miraz getting Rahul caught at short-leg.
From there on, some may have expected that Jadeja and Ashwin would nudge around and look to take India to 200. But the duo did exactly the opposite of that. They attack Bangladesh. Pacers or spinners, neither were spared. The run tally has increased rapidly, and Najmul Hossain Shanto was dumbfounded.
Ashwin’s day out
Ashwin had raced off the blocks; he’d scored 34 off just 35 balls and taken Team India past 200. The off-spinner was especially great outside the off-stump. In the 60th over, he brought up his fifty, and Jadeja too was batting on 34. The 100 partnership came up in the next over, and 300 looked like a done deal. But they were done.
In the first two sessions, for the loss of 6 wickets and scoring 176. In the last session alone, they scored 163 runs in the last session (32 overs), scoring over 5 runs an over. Ashwin also scored his 6th century and his second one at his home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Coincidentally, Ashwin’s last hundred also came to Chennai three years ago.
His partner-in-crime, Jadeja, wasn’t too shabby. The southpaw ended the first day just 14 runs short of his 5th Test hundred. Early in the morning session tomorrow, Jadeja is also expected to get his ton, and they’ll cross their 200-run partnership as well.
IND vs BAN 1st Test: Brief Scores
India 1st innings: 339/6 (Ravichandran Ashwin 102, Ravindra Jadeja 86; Hasan Mahmud 58/4, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 77/1)
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