In the first Test match of the India tour of Bangladesh 2022, India defeated Bangladesh by 188 runs at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
Indian skipper KL Rahul won the toss and opted to bat first. It was an obvious choice as in the subcontinent, the pitch is more likely to favour batters only for the first few days. Team India started off well as both openers, KL Rahul (22) and Shubman Gill (20) managed to play through the new swinging red ball. Cheteshwar Pujara (90) did what he is being doing for so many years for India. The batter stood tall and played over 200 deliveries to solidify India’s position in the match. Rishabh Pant (40) and Shreyas Iyer (86) also later took things forward with their impressive knock. Towards the end, Ravichandran Ashwin (58) and Kuldeep Yadav (40) as well batted strongly to take the Men in Blue to 404/10.
With the red ball, Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan Miraz scalped four wickets each. Other than these two bowlers, no one really impressed much and were only decent towards Indian batters. Along with these two, one each was also claimed by Ebadot Hossain and Khaled Ahmed.
Bangladesh’s first inning got wrapped up soon as no one really showed character and batted strongly. Wicketkeeper batter Mushfiqur Rahim (28) was the highest run scorer and yet was not the most confident one. Inform Mehidy Hasan Miraz (25) was the other batter who could have batter for much longer if he had got any support from the other end. Bangladesh was all out in just 55.5 overs and could only put up 150 runs on the board.
Kuldeep Yadav, on his comeback, plucked a five-wicket haul which helped India to restrict Bangladesh to a low score. Mohammad Siraj was also aggressive towards Bangladeshi batters and in the process picked three wickets. One each wicket were also taken by Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel.
India did not enforce a follow-on but rather went out to bat again. While doing so, Pujara (102*) finally smashed a hundred after over a thousand days for team India. Shubman Gill (110) was the other centurion of the day which helped the visitors to register 258/2 on the scorecard before declaring.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Khaled Ahmed were the only bowlers who picked up one wicket each.
Bangladesh started their second innings with a good opening stand of 124 as Najmul Hossain Shanto (67) and Zakir Hasan (100) scored massive runs on the fourth day. Zakir got his debut hundred and that too against mighty India. Other than that, no other batter got humongous runs under their belt which could have saved Bangladesh. Captain Shakib Al Hassan (84) was their only hope on the fifth day but it was just too much for him to score.
Left-arm orthodox spinner Axar Patel grabbed four wickets and with him, Kuldeep Yadav as well got three wickets. Siraj, Yadav and Ashwin picked one wicket each to seal the first Test match.
Kuldeep Yadav was adjudged Man of the Match for his electrifying bowling show in both innings. With this win, team India is now leading the two-match Test series by 1-0.
Scorecard:
First inning:
India: 404/10, Overs 133.5, Cheteshwar Pujara 90, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 4/112
Bangladesh: 150/10, Overs 55.5, Mushfiqur Rahim 28, Kuldeep Yadav 5/40
Second inning:
India: 258/2 d, Overs 61.4, Shubman Gill 110, Khaled Ahmed 1/51
Bangladesh: 324/10, Overs 113.2, Zakir Hasan 100, Axar Patel 4/77