Indore Test: Indian pacers pick three to peg back B’desh

Indore: The old adage goes that morning shows the day. But for Bangladesh, the joy ended with winning the toss and batting first in the opening Test of the two-Test series between India and Bangladesh at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on Thursday. At the end of the opening session, it was the Indian bowlers who had stolen the show as the Bangladesh scorecard read 63/3 with skipper Mominul Haque (22) and Mushfiqur Rahim (14) at the crease.

It was a brave decision in the first place to bat first, but the fact that Indian pitches tend to turn square from the third evening onwards would have seen the visiting skipper Haque make the call and the Indian bowlers were at the top of the game from the word go.

The pace bowling trio of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Mohammed Shami finished with a wicket apiece in the first session of the opening day, but more importantly, they kept bowling a testing line and length. In fact, skipper Virat Kohli bowled ace spinner R. Ashwin for just four overs as the pacers kept piling the pressure on the Bangladesh batsmen.

Batting first on the wicket which already looked to be favoring the pacers meant that the opening duo of Shadman Islam and Imrul Kayes needed to play out the new ball. But senior opener Kayes (6) was the first to go as Umesh bowled the perfect length outside the off-stump to have Kayes poke at the ball. Ajinkya Rahane made no mistake grabbing it in the slip cordon.

With Kayes out in the sixth over, it was now important for Shadman to consolidate with skipper Haque. But Ishant struck soon after as he once again like Umesh bowled the perfect line outside off to get Shadman to edge one straight to Wriddhiman Saha. With both the openers back in the hut by the seventh over, the back of the Bangladesh batting was already against the wall.

But that wasn’t all as Shami then came in to send back Mohammad Mithun – trapped right in front for 13. The scoreboard read a dismal 31/3. That is when Haque and Mushfiqur came together and ensured that they don’t lose any more wickets.

The only worry for the Indians was the fact that skipper Kohli dropped Mushfiqur off Umesh and deputy Ajinkya Rahane dropped Haque off Ashwin.

Brief Scores: Bangladesh: 63/3 (Shami 1/12) vs India

(IANS)