Team India squared off against Bangladesh in the first Test at Chattogram, hoping to stay alive in the race for World Test Championship 2021-23 final. Skipper KL Rahul won the toss and chose to bat first on Wednesday, although his side didn’t get off to a good start, but they finished strongly.
Shreyas Iyer remained unbeaten at 82, after facing 169 balls, while Cheteshwar Pujara narrowly missed out on a century after getting dismissed for a total of 90 runs.
However, the middle order pair helped steer India past tough waters, as the openers KL Rahul and Shubman Gill both failed to impress.
Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli also got dismissed on a solitary run, while Rishabh Pant looked good but gifted away his wicket shortly before completing his fifty, getting out at 46 runs.
The pair of Iyer and Pujara helped India reach near the 300-run mark, although Axar Patel’s dismissal at 14 runs on the last ball of the day’s play would slightly spoil the mood.
Stumps on Day of the first #BANvIND Test!@ShreyasIyer15 remains unbeaten on * as #TeamIndia reach 278/6 at the end of day’s play
Scorecard https://t.co/CVZ44N7IRe pic.twitter.com/muGIlGUbNE
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 14, 2022
Rahul and Co can still afford to smile though as Iyer had lady luck smiling upon him, as he survived twice, first his catch was dropped, and later, the ball grazed his stumps, the bails lit-up, but didn’t fall down and thus he remained not-out.
Bangladesh bowlers struggled slightly as they were asked to bowl longer spells, but they will still take heart from their bowling display having got six wickets on the first day itself.
READ| IND vs BAN 1st Test: Rishabh Pant crosses 4000-run mark in International cricket
Khaled Ahmed got a solitary wicket, skipper Shakib Al Hasan was economical, giving away just 26 runs in his 12-over spell, while Taijul Islam impressed the most, picking up crucial three wickets of Kohli, Pujara and Gill, whereas Mehdiy Hasan also continued his rich vein of form, contributing a couple of wickets.
Iyer will hope to continue his red-hot scoring streak on Day 2, and propel his side to a fight-worthy total.
