Rahul (3*) and Gill (14*) were cautious on the opening day as the bad light forced umpires to call early stumps. Bangladesh used only Taskin Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan on the opening day and the duo caused some serious trouble for the Indian openers who looked a bit rusty.
The pressure will be on stand-in skipper Rahul who failed to score big in the first Test match. While Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin produced a stellar show with the ball on Day 1 and restricted Bangladesh to 227 as the duo shared four wickets each to pin the hosts down. Mominul Haque top-scored with 84 but the hosts lost wickets at regular intervals to end their innings about an hour before stumps after electing to bat first. “It’s a 50-50 wicket. It is not like it is fully for the pacers or spinners.
Some balls are doing something and some are not,” Umesh said after the day’s play. “You have to be patient. One odd ball is kicking from back of length, and if you bowl full it is not swinging or doing anything. There is no pace.” Mushfiqur Rahim (26), Liton Das (25) and Najmul Hossain (24) were all unable to lend Mominul an extended spell of support. Mominul, playing his first match in the series, departed as the ninth wicket when he nicked Ashwin behind the stumps.
“People made mental errors again when they were set,” said Bangladesh batting coach Jamie Siddons. “The ball was spinning but the pace bowlers weren’t getting off a great deal. To let Umesh get (four) wickets was very disappointing.” Fast bowler Unadkat, returning to Test cricket for the first time since his unremarkable 2010 debut against South Africa, impressed in the opening two sessions before finishing with 2-50.
India Playing XI: KL Rahul (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj Bangladesh Playing XI: Najmul Hossain Shanto, Zakir Hasan, Mominul Haque, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan (c), Nurul Hasan (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taijul Islam, Khaled Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed
