India won the first test against Bangladesh as their dominance at home continues

 

India won the first test by 280 runs (PC: BCCI)

                                                      

Coming to the fourth day of the first test match between India and Bangladesh, the result was inevitable as India routed Bangladesh by 280 runs to pocket the first test played in Chennai. Overnight batsmen Shakib and Najmul Shanto (captain) tried to consolidate for some overs, but the former fell to Ashwin for mere 25 runs to give India their first breakthrough of the day as young Jaiswal complete the formality by taking a nice diving catch at short leg.

Next to follow was Liton Das who was sent back by Ravindra Jadeja and then there was no looking back for Indian bowlers who bundled them for 234. Bangladesh captain Shanto was a top scorer as he scored 82 runs for his team and tried to give a fight somewhat but to no avail.

Local boy Ravichandran Ashwin was rightly adjudged the man of the match for his scintillating 113 runs in the first innings and 6 wicket hauls.

“I had huge shoes to fill, I came in to replace Harbhajan, I used to replicate his action in junior cricket, he was an inspiration to me”

Those were the words from Ashwin from the post-match talking and it shows the hunger he had to learn from his early days. Time and again he has showed his character both with bat and ball and has proved that age is just the number. Jadeja also gave the perfect support as he picked 3 wickets in pursuit of wrapping up the first match.

Another exciting prospect of this match was the return of Rishabh Pant who wrote his own script and completed his 6^th test century. He was the trump card to win India the last Border-Gavaskar trophy 2020-21 Gabba and he will be in the hunting list of Aussies in the upcoming test series down under later this year.

Overall, India will be very happy to have dominated this match without big contributions from the likes of Kohli, Rohit and Rahul and Bangladesh would be varied of that in the next test match. However, Bangladesh will rue the drop catches and will have to rectify the areas before the second and last test match of this series to be played at Green Park, Kanpur.

With this win India have won more matches than the games lost in 92-year-old history taking the winning matches tally to 179. The focus will now shift to Kanpur where the second and last match will be played Bangladesh will look to pose a better fight in the next match whereas India will look to continue their domination in tests at home. It will be interesting to see if the management will make any changes to the playing 11 in the next match considering the workload and for giving some experience to the youngsters as the tough matches will follow in the coming calendar and India will look to test the options they have on their bench and make sure the backup is ready to face the international music.