India assert absolute home dominance; race past rain, time to beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets and complete 2-0 series sweep
KANPUR: The 11 Indian players took the field at the Green Park stadium on Tuesday like a pack of wolves about to prey on a rather tame Bangladesh batting line-up.
By lunch on Day 5, with three wickets a piece, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin had gobbled up the Bangladeshi batting for 146.And an hour into the second session, Yashasvi Jaiswal brought up his second belligerent half-century in the match as India knocked over the 96-run target with seven wickets in hand to sweep the series 2-0.
Talk about taking conditions and pitch out of the equation. India had to bat just of 52 overs in a match that had two-and-a-half days wiped out and a total of 173.2 overs bowled. That’s not even two full days of Test cricket!
That’s how you beat the weather, a slow pitch and the clock to ensure your World Test Championship campaign is on track.
When Rishabh Pant nonchalantly tonked Taijul Islam for a boundary over mid-on to seal the triumph, there were no animated celebration from either him and his partner Virat Kohli at the other end. Absolute dominance on home soil was comfortably established in Kanpur. This is a team that plays to win.
The pitch was a bit dual-paced and aided variable bounce. But there was nothing venomous about it that would suggest that a team could bowl out its opponent twice in 121 overs.
“When Rohit says that you try to make 400 and make a game out of it, it tells you that the captain believes the bowlers will get the job done. I believe in my bowlers. These bowlers have done it day in and day out. And they have the ability to pick 20 wickets,” said Ashwin after the Test, summing it up rather aptly.
“You will encounter situations where batters do dominate against our bowling attack as well. But the bowling attack is quite special. And I really do hope that this legacy of bowling is taken forward,” he added.
When Bangladesh resumed the day at 26/2, the ball was literally dying off the pitch. Shadman Islam was getting comfortable even as Mominul Haque gloved a sweep to leg slip off Ashwin in the third over of the day. When skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto joined Shadman, the pitch seemed to have lost all fizz.
In a rush of blood, Shanto missed a reverse-sweep off Jadeja that crashed into the stumps. Jadeja, all of a sudden, got the ball to kick off the surface. Litton Das edged one to Pant before Shakib Al Hasan lobbed a simple caught and bowled. Between all this, Akash Deep had Shadman caught at gully by Jaiswal for a solid 50. In no time, Bangladesh were 94/7.
Cleaning up the rest of the batting with his cleverly planned dipping slower balls was child’s play for Bumrah.
“We thought of playing according to the conditions and strength of the individuals. If you defend and get caught at bat-pad, it is the same as getting out sweeping on a wicket like this. If the batsman thinks his best form of defence or getting off strike is a sweep shot rather than the defensive shot, that’s his option,” Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusinghe said.
Going by the Test rankings, it would have taken unworldly performances from Bangladesh to upstage India in India. But Hathurusinghe emphasized on the fact that this Indian team has grown by leaps and bounds over the past half a decade or so.
“I can see how India team has improved since 2017 when I was last here. We have improved lately but we are competing with other teams. India have completely gone to another level,” he said.