On an unusually cool Chennai morning, India’s home season kicked-off on a sorry note with its superstars collapsing like a house of cards against an upcoming young Bangladeshi fast bowler. Hasan Mahmud, aided by the overhead conditions sowed seeds of doubts in the collective minds of India’s top-order batters and reaped rich rewards. A little over 30 minutes after the first ball of the first Test between India and Bangladesh, the home team had lost three wickets for not much with the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli back in the dressing room licking their wounds.
In the middle, Bangladeshi players were in high spirits as the hopeful fans assembled at the MA Chidambaram Stadium were left wondering what was going wrong. They landed in India carrying the confidence of having knocked down Pakistan last month in a two-match Test series for a historic clean sweep. And they gave India an early warning through 24-year-old Hasan who continues to polish his reputation.
In the space of his 32 deliveries, Hasan first pushed India into a corner by forcing them to be cautious and then started delivering knockout blows.
A Peach of Delivery to Rohit Sharma
Rohit was the first one to depart having earlier been saved by the umpire’s call when he was on 1. He went on to score a boundary, India’s first of the contest but then offered a defensive shot to a Hasan delivery that moved just enough to kiss the outside edge of his bat and land into the palms of his Bangladesh counterpart Najmul Hossain Shanto at second slip for a simple catch. He scored 6 off 19.
Shubman Gills Wafts At Legside Delivery
In walked Gill and he only lasted eight deliveries without troubling the scorers. He attempted a flick one that was fired down the leg-side by Hasan and it only resulted in an inside edge with wicketkeeper Litton Das moving to his left to grab a regulation catch.
The sparse crowd though became louder for in walked Kohli. Hasan sent him packing too with an innocuous delivery on which Kohli got an outside edge for another easy catch for Litton. He managed run-a-ball six.
With the scorecard reading 34/3, two lefties joined forces to arrest the slide. Yashasvi Jaiswal, who watched his three seniors taking early exit route back to the pavilion, stitched a solid stand with the returning Rishabh Pant whose last Test before that car accident in December 2022 was incidentally against Bangladesh too.
Jaiswal dropped anchor and scored a patient half-century, the fifth of his fledgling Test career and proved again why he’s rated so highly.
Jaiswal would later become Nahid Rana’s first victim of the contest and his 118-ball 56 was the only significant contribution in an otherwise flop show from the India top-order in their season opener.
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