Indore, Nov 14 (IANS) It was a dicey toss to win for Bangladesh skipper Mominul Haque in the first Test against India on Thursday, as while the wicket at the Holkar Stadium wore a look that would have had the Indian seamers waiting to get the red cherry in their hands, the nature of pitches in the country too are such that batting last can be a challenge against the spinners.
Haque decided to go with the conventional approach of batting first, and that saw the Indian bowlers rule the roost as the visitors were bundled for 150 on the first day of the opening Test here.
Speaking at the end of the day’s play, ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said that the Indian pacers have been bowling really well in recent times and it looks like something is going happen everytime they have the ball in their hands.
In fact, the first session was completely dominated by the trio of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav.
“They have been in some great rhythm… Sometimes you feel something’s happening in every spell they are bowling or at least they make it happen. Shami, Umesh and Ishant have been bowling well as a pack. Add Bumrah to it, and it becomes one of the most lethal pace bowling attacks in the world,” he said.
Ashwin also felt that it was indeed a brave decision for Haque to bat first as the Indians were expecting the visitors to bowl as the surface had life on it.
“I thought it was a very brave decision. We expected them to bowl first, but they batted. However, the way they batted was commendable, few of their batsmen played well. It is never easy to bat on a surface which has life and which is damp and I thought Mominul and some of them batted well,” he said.
The off-spinner himself had a few catches dropped off his bowling, but that didn’t stop him from picking up his 250th Test wicket on home soil. Ashwin dismissed Haque to reach the milestone in the post-lunch session.
Asked if Bangladesh were scared of the Indian bowlers, he said: “Look, I don’t think any international team is scared to come out and play a game. If you are talking about No. 10 and 11 moving away from the stumps, all that has happened with a lot of No. 10s and 11s.”
Ashwin also said that it was not fair to compare India with Bangladesh as the visitors lacked experience in comparison to the home team.
“You need to understand that a lot of players on the other side are inexperienced. Rather than being harsh on Bangladesh, I would say that good cricket was played. It’s important to talk about the positives of Indian bowlers,” said Ashwin.
–IANS
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