Abhijay Raj Vaish, Pune
India kicked off their home test season claiming victory over Bangladesh in the first test match at the MA Chidambaram stadium by 280 runs on Thursday. The hosts now lead the two-match series by 1-0 blowing away the visitors for 234 in the second innings. The Chennai test match proves to be a huge confidence boost to the Indian contingent defeating this Bangladesh side that recently clinched the test series on Pakistani soil.
The match began on September 19 where Bangladesh won the toss and invited the hosts to bat first. The first innings saw a top order collapse with three out of the Indian top four batters returning cheaply. Yashwaswi Jaiswal was the sole top order batter to shine with a gritty half-century on a tough pitch. The Indian innings was stabilised by the experienced-duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ranvindra Jadeja scoring 113 and 83 respectively. Ashwin, who was the main architect of this innings scored his sixth test century allowing India to pose a total of 376. The Najmal Shanto led side walked out to bat on Day 2 of the test match getting bowled out for 149. Jasprit Bumrah picked a four-fer with Siraj, Akashdeep and Jadeja picking up two wickets each. India’s second innings witnessed centuries from Indian youngsters Shubman Gill and Rishab Pant scoring 119 and 109 each. Owing to the mammoth lead, the men in blue declared the innings at 287 posing a target of 515 for the visitors. Captain Shanto was the star performer scoring 82 for the side. Ravichandran Ashwin cut through the line-up claiming six wickets in the final innings.
India created history recording more wins than losses in test cricket for the first time. The next test match will be held at Kanpur beginning from September 27. The test series will be followed by a three-match T20 series with the tigers. India will next host New Zealand at home in a three-test match series from October 16. The test season will culminate with the much awaited Border Gavaskar Trophy that will be held in Australia. India hope to win all five home test matches to claim their spot for the final of the World Test Championship before touring the Australian subcontinent.