Right-arm pacer Mohammed Siraj and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav shone with the ball as India plunged Bangladesh into serious trouble on the second day of the first Test in Chittagong on Thursday.
Bangladesh collapsed to 133/8 at stumps, with Kuldeep picking up 4/33 after his 40 made a vital contribution to India’s first innings total of 404 runs.
BAN v IND, 1st Test, Day 2 recap: Ashwin stars with the bat; Kuldeep, Siraj trigger hosts’ collapse
Mehidy Hasan, 16 not out, and Ebadot Hossain, 13 not out, survived the day but Bangladesh still needed 71 runs to avoid a follow-on.
“Losing eight wickets is disappointing,” admitted Bangladesh spin coach Rangana Herath, insisting nonetheless that the game was not over.
“But you know this is Test cricket, three days to go, we need (to) hang in there and we need to fight hard,” he said.
Mohammad Siraj ran through Bangladesh’s top order with 3/14 before Kuldeep – playing the series as a late replacement for Ravindra Jadeja – mesmerised the home side with his left-arm spin.
Siraj dismissed Najmul Hossain on the first ball of the Bangladesh innings as the hosts made the worst possible start in reply to India’s total. Umesh Yadav complemented his efforts by bowling Yasir Ali for four three overs later.
“Red ball is my favourite format,” Siraj said after the day’s play. “It is where you have to maintain a consistent line and length and that helps me in white-ball cricket also.
“My approach was to bowl consistently at one place because it is such a wicket that if you try more there are chances to leak runs. My only plan was to hit one spot and got successful. I think the more you bowl stump line it is better, because sometimes it is getting lower from there as well as turning. For a fast bowler, it is better to bowl stump line because then you can have LBW chances.”
Siraj added: “In 2018, my balls stopped coming inside, I started bowling outswingers more. I got confused why balls are not coming in and that time I discovered wobble seam because it is difficult for a batter to tackle an outswing that comes in. Wobble seam is a type of an off-cutter and I got success with that.”
Liton Das offered some counter-punch with five fours, including three off consecutive balls from Umesh, before Siraj bowled him for 24. The paceman also claimed the wicket of debutant opener Zakir Hasan for 20.
Kuldeep struck off his second ball, forcing Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan to give Virat Kohli a catch at slip for three, reducing Bangladesh to 75/5.
The 28-year-old spinner then removed Nurul Hasan (16), Mushfiqur Rahim (28) and Taijul Islam (0) to put India firmly in control.
India were all out in the second session after adding 126 runs to their overnight 278/6, with Bangladeshi off-spinner Mehidy finishing with 4/112 and left-arm spinner Taijul taking 4/133.
R Ashwin defied Bangladesh’s attack to hit 58, the third half-century in the India innings after Cheteshwar Pujara’s 90 and Shreyas Iyer’s 86.
Ashwin received invaluable support from Kuldeep as the duo added 92 runs for the eighth wicket.
Iyer resumed on 82 but missed out on a hundred as Ebadot bowled him in the eighth over of the morning.
Ebadot could have dismissed Iyer in his previous over had Liton not dropped the catch at fine leg.
Iyer, who was dropped on 67 and miraculously survived being bowled by Ebadot on 77 when the bails failed to dislodge on the opening day, hit 10 fours in his 192-ball innings.
Inputs from AFP
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